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STORIES OF PEOPLE WORTH WHILE 







































































































































(g) Underwood & Underwood 

ALEXANDER HAMILTON 




Stories of People 
Worth While 


By 

KITTY PARSONS 

Author of **Do You Know Them?” 


Nsw York Chicago 

Fleming H. Revell Company 

London and Edinburgh 


Copyright, 1924, by 

FLEMING H. REVELL COMPANY 


CTloi 

TP:jS 


Printed in the United States of America 



New York: 158 Fifth Avenue 
Chicago: 17 North Wabash Ave. 
London: 21 Paternoster Square 
Edinburgh: 75 Princes Street 

OCT -9 1^24 


©Cl AS0827S 

..ft t 


To My Dear Friends 
Leonora and Rene Pardee 
With Sincere Affection. 


Acknowledgments 

T HE author would like to thank the following 
people for their kind assistance in gathering 
her material together: Mrs. Walter Reed, 
Miss Gertrude Grosvenor, granddaughter of Alex¬ 
ander Graham Bell; the librarian at the Nantucket 
Athenaeum for her information about Maria 
Mitchell; the librarian at the Watertown Public 
Library for her information about Harriet Hos- 
mer; the Secretary of Mount Holyoke College for 
information about Mary Lyon; and the Betsy Ross 
Memorial Association for further information 
about Mrs. Ross. 


Foreword 


P ERHAPS the word biography makes you 
think of great cumbersome volumes, heavy 
inside as well as out. It shouldn’t, really. 
Stories of achievement can be the most fascinating 
and absorbing tales in the world. If the characters 
in fiction can be interesting, don’t you think the 
men who have actually lived and accomplished 
things should be much more so, seeing that the 
things that happen to them are really true ? 

Many a biography is more exciting than an ad¬ 
venture story. Take, for example, the story of the 
early colonist, Captain John Smith, or the navi¬ 
gator, Henry Hudson; could any fiction read better 
than these ? 

Of course all people’s lives are not filled with 
adventure; but they are, at least, full of interest, if 
the people themselves have done interesting things. 
A poet or an artist does not usually lead the same 
sort of life as an explorer or a soldier, but this 
does not mean that his life is dull or uninteresting. 
Reading these stories of people who have done 
something big cannot but affect our own char¬ 
acters, and make us aspire to bigger and better 
things ourselves. “ Are not great men the models 
of nations ? ” says Meredith. Especially is this 
7 


8 Foreword 

true when we are young and our minds are eager 
to receive new impressions and ideas. 

Biography is an inspiration to the young reader, 
and almost every child has a favourite hero whom 
he particularly looks up to. Years ago, Abraham 
Lincoln sat up far into the night reading the life 
of Washington. He read it not once, but many 
times, and it is not hard to believe that the boy 
Lincoln tried to live up to the example of the hero, 
the patriot and the Christian, whom he so greatly 
admired. In later years, Theodore Roosevelt, who 
had always been a sincere admirer of Lincoln, 
found great comfort in reading the life and letters 
of the great President. 

Children, long ago, did not have so many books 
as they have today. Many of them were able to 
find only one or two very deep and heavy volumes 
that belonged to their parents. When she was a 
little girl in France, the famous Madame Roland 
hungrily devoured the contents of Plutarch's Lives. 
In fact she became so attached to this book that she 
carried it to church with her instead of her prayer- 
book. I am not recommending this method to 
children today, but I think it is interesting to hear 
about. General Leonard Wood somewhat modified 
the idea, for he took Plutarch with him when he 
went fishing, to read when the fish refused to bite. 
Benjamin Franklin was another child who loved 
this book. 

The other day a middle-aged man told me that 


Foreword 


9 


the book he enjoyed most as a child, was a short 
life of Napoleon. It was told in such a vivid and 
entertaining way that he read it over and over again 
with unfailing interest. My own favourite heroes 
were Julius Caesar and Mary, Queen of Scots. I 
do not know why I selected these two persons, but 
they charmed me far more than any fictitious char¬ 
acters I had ever read about. They seemed so real 
and human somehow, so much more alive than the 
noble King Arthur, whom I regret to say, always 
seemed too highly ornamental for my childish 
fancy. 

Stories of People Worth While is a complete 
volume in itself. It is not a sequel to anything, but 
is a companion volume to Do You Know Them?, 
which deals with a different group of people. 

This little collection is meant to be strictly gen¬ 
eral ; almost every one of the members who is here 
represents something different from the rest. If 
you find more than one statesman or writer it is 
not because they were both statesmen or writers 
that their portraits are hung in this gallery, but 
because they distinguished themselves in some other 
way besides. 

The men and women I have written about were 
chosen for the same reason that they were chosen 
in Do You Know Them? As much as possible I 
have tried to tell you about people who have done 
great things rather than people who are widely 
famous. “ But, of course,” you will say, “ every- 


10 


Foreword 


one knows Benjamin Franklin and Alexander 
Hamilton.” Yes, indeed; but the children may not 
know all about their lives. Or, perhaps, they may 
find some new detail that may bring the picture of 
these great men more vividly before them. 

You know we may look at the same picture 
every day for years and scarcely notice it; yet you 
may look at it in a new light and it will seem quite 
a different thing. These pictures are not supposed 
to be complete portraits of their subjects. They 
are just sketches. But I sincerely hope that the 
little sketches will make their young readers want 
to know more about the subjects themselves. 

K. P. 


Brookline, Mass. 


Contents 


I. Captain John Smith .... 13 

Early Colonist and Explorer 

II. Henry Hudson.21 

The Man Who Discovered the Hud¬ 
son River 

III. Maria Mitchell.28 

An American Girl Who Discovered a 
Comet 

IV. Benjamin Franklin .... 34 

A Philosopher and Patriot 

V. Alexander Hamilton ... 42 

A Lawyer and Statesman 

VI. Betsy Ross. 49 

The Woman Who Made the First 
American Flag 

VII. Martin Luther.56 

The Founder of Protestant Civilisa¬ 
tion 

VIII. John Wesley.66 

The Founder of Methodism 

IX. Elizabeth Fry .76 

A Worker for Prison Reform 

X. General Booth .83 

The Founder of the Salvation Army 
11 


12 


Contents 


XI. Friedrich Wilhelm Froebee . 

The Man Who Invented the Kin¬ 
dergarten 

XII. Alexander Graham Beee . 

The Man Who Invented the Tele¬ 
phone 

XIII. Noah Webster. 

The Man Who Wrote the Dictionary 

XIV. Hans Christian Andersen 

The Man Who Wrote the Fairy Tales 

XV. Anne Bradstreet. 

The First Woman Poet in this 
Country 

XVI. Charlotte Bronte .... 
An English Novelist 

XVII. Eugene Field. 

A Poet Whom Children Love 

XVIII. Mary Lyon. 

The Founder of Mount Holyoke Col¬ 
lege 

XIX. Cecil John Rhodes .... 
A Man Who Did Much for Edu¬ 
cation 

XX. Louis Pasteur. 

A Great Life Saver 

XXI. Walter Reed. 

The Man Who Killed Yellow Fever 


91 

97 

104 

110 

116 

122 

127 

135 

142 

148 

154 


I 

Captain John Smith 

Early Colonist and Explorer 


C APTAIN JOHN SMITH was a famous 
adventurer and explorer, who was closely 
associated with one of the earliest colonies 
in this country. He was born at Willoughby, in 
Lincolnshire, England, in the year 1580. This was 
at the time when Queen Elizabeth was on the 
throne and the country was the scene of much 
activity and excitement. 

Young John Smith was born with a keen love 
of adventure, and at thirteen he decided that it was 
high time for him to set out to see the world. So 
he sold his books and other worldly possessions and 
would soon have embarked on his expedition had 
not the sudden death of his father put an end to 
his wild schemes. His guardians refused to give 
their consent to his going to sea, and for a time at 
least, he was obliged to give up his plans and stay 
quietly at home. 

A year or two later, John had a sudden stroke 
of good luck, for an unexpected opportunity to 
travel really came to him. He was invited to ac- 


13 


14 Captain John Smith 

company the young son of Lord Willoughby on a 
tour of the continent of Europe, in the capacity of 
page. This sounded very agreeable at the time, but 
after he had tried the position for a few months, he 
found it far too uneventful to suit his romantic 
taste. The chance of something more exciting soon 
lured him away from his wealthy patron and he en¬ 
listed under the Protestant banner of Henry of 
Navarre, afterwards Henry IV of France. 

Young Smith found soldiering very pleasant, 
and after his first venture he served as a soldier 
of fortune in many different lands and met with 
more thrilling adventures than it would be possible 
to relate. Many strange stories of his hairbreadth 
escapes have come down to us. One of the most 
remarkable is the tale of his victory over three 
Turks, whom he slew single-handed in Transyl¬ 
vania. For this deed he was given a pension and 
a patent of nobility from the ruler of that country. 
He was also permitted to have three bleeding 
Turks’ heads on his shield. 

In Turkey, Captain Smith was captured and 
taken prisoner and later sold into slavery. He was 
purchased by a Turk and sent to Constantinople as 
a present to his young mistress, the beautiful Prin¬ 
cess Charatza Tragabigzanda, who believed him to 
be a Bohemian lord whom her servant had con¬ 
quered. When the princess found out the truth she 
was highly indignant, and at once released him and 
sent him to her brother, in Cambia, a province in 


Early Colonist and Explorer 15 

Tartaria, where she felt sure he would be well 
treated. Smith was held as a slave by the brother 
and finally escaped and went to Transylvania and 
later to England. 

Years later when he visited New England, 
Captain Smith named what is now known as 
Cape Ann, Cape Tragabigzanda, after the Mo¬ 
hammedan princess. The three islands off the 
cape he called the “ Three Turks’ Heads ” for the 
three Turks he had slain. There is now a hotel on 
Cape Ann called the “ Turks’ Head Inn,” which 
was probably named in honour of the same event. 

On his first voyage to Italy a terrible storm arose 
and the passengers, who were an extremely super¬ 
stitious lot, blamed the terrific tempest on poor 
Captain Smith because, unfortunately, he was the 
only Englishman on board. Feeling that he must 
be responsible for endangering their lives, they 
heartlessly threw him overboard and, without a 
backward glance, left him to drown. But John 
Smith was an excellent swimmer and, after a long 
and difficult swim in the rough water, he at last 
reached an island where he found refuge. Then, 
along came a pirate ship and picked him up and 
carried him off with its wicked crew, on a voyage 
of plunder. Their captive was far too honest to 
stick to a pirate’s life, and as soon as the chance 
offered, he left the ship and set off to fight the 
Turks. 

On his return to England, in 1605, people of 


16 Captain John Smith 

influence who recognised his daring and bravery 
induced John Smith to take part in the colonisation 
of Virginia. A year was spent in gathering colon¬ 
ists together and equipping vessels, and the follow¬ 
ing year the little party set out for the New World, 
the entire coast of which was generally called New 
England. This was in the early part of the reign 
of James I, a few years before the Pilgrims and 
the Puritans started on their voyages to this coun¬ 
try. Sir Walter Raleigh and other Englishmen had 
made several attempts to found colonies before this 
time, but largely on account of mismanagement, 
they had had little success. 

John Smith had been a roving care-free adven¬ 
turer, with no serious purpose or object in life, 
until he set out on this new expedition. From that 
time he entered heart and soul into the enterprise 
and became deeply interested in the development 
and growth of the new colony they were going to 
found. He put all of his remarkable energy into 
the task and without him the project would surely 
have failed again. 

The first land the colonists made was called Cape 
Henry. For some time they looked around for a 
suitable site to settle on, and at last sailed about 
forty miles up the James River to a spot which they 
called Jamestown, in honour of the king. There 
they founded the first real English settlement in 
this country, under the supervision of King James, 
who was to control all their laws. 


Early Colonist and Explorer 17 

Of the men who sailed with these early colonists, 
there were few who had any real ability to cope 
with the tremendous task they had undertaken. 
They had been little used to hardship in England 
and in the New World the conditions were so dif¬ 
ferent that they soon found themselves confronted 
by serious difficulties. John Smith was well used 
to a rough life and he remained undaunted when 
many of the others became sadly discouraged. 
Gradually his power grew, and in every way he 
proved himself a wise advisor and a fine military 
leader, in whom they could place their trust. Not 
long after their arrival he was given a place in 
the Council, which had at first been denied him, 
and a year later he was made president of the 
colony. 

Although Captain John Smith was now an im¬ 
portant citizen with a serious business in life, his 
exciting adventures did not end. The country 
round about Jamestown was wild and rough, and 
there were many Indians not far from the colony. 
On one of his expeditions Smith was captured by 
the great Indian chief, Powhatan, and held as a 
prisoner for a period of seven weeks. At the end 
of this time he was condemned to death and would 
have ended his life then and there had it not been 
for Pocahontas, the beautiful daughter of Pow¬ 
hatan, who rushed to his rescue. The tender¬ 
hearted young girl pleaded with her father and 
finally obtained the prisoner’s release, before the 


18 Captain John Smith 

terrible sentence could take place. Years after¬ 
wards Pocahontas married John Rolfe, one of the 
colonists, and became a sincere and devout Chris¬ 
tian. She was baptised by the name of Rebecca, 
before going to England with her husband. 

The time that Captain John Smith spent in cap¬ 
tivity with the Indians was not wasted, for it 
proved a great help to him afterwards in under¬ 
standing the ways and habits of the Indian people. 
He knew how to deal with them far better than 
most white men, and soon became familiar with 
their different methods of warfare. They learned 
to fear and respect him and to realise that he was 
a man of his word. 

Many times Captain John Smith saved the col¬ 
ony from utter ruin by his wise decisions, clever¬ 
ness and strength of character. Without question, 
he was the one man of them all who had energy 
and will and brains enough to hold the colony 
together, and to work for its development. When 
the settlers were almost starving they turned to 
him to save them, and through his ingenuity they 
obtained food from the hostile Indians. John 
Smith and his men fired their muskets over the 
heads of the Indians, who were in mortal terror 
of firearms and ran away in great fright. After 
that he captured the cherished image of their god, 
Okee, which convinced them that all was lost, and 
made them agree to sell him whatever he wished 
for his people. 


Early Colonist and Explorer 19 

In spite of all that he did for the Virginia colon¬ 
ists, they did not appreciate his efforts, and after a 
few years Captain Smith went back to England. 
He soon returned to the New World and visited 
the coast from Penobscot to Cape Cod, buying furs 
and making observations which he later made into 
a map and presented to King Charles. The king 
changed some of the names on the map, among 
them, Cape Tragabigzanda, which he named after 
his mother, Queen Anne. 

John Smith was given the title of “ Admiral of 
New England ” after these last voyages. His next 
venture was an exciting one, for he was chased by 
pirate ships and by French men-of-war and finally 
taken captive on a vessel which carried him around 
the Azores and other distant points of the globe, 
greatly against his will. One terrifically stormy 
night he decided that he could stand it no longer 
and would attempt to escape. So he set off in a 
small boat and soon drifted far out to sea, where 
he tossed about on the mammoth waves for many 
weary hours. At last, when he had almost given 
up hope of ever seeing land again, the waters 
became more calm and he was cast up on the 
French shore. 

Even after this experience Captain Smith had 
not had enough of the sea, for before long he em¬ 
barked on another voyage. The last years of his 
life were largely devoted to writing books. His 
General History of Virginia, New England and the 


20 Captain John Smith 

Somer Isles appeared first, and was soon followed 
by True Travels, Adventures and Observations of 
Captain John Smith, and A True Relation. At the 
time of his death, in 1631, he was writing a History 
of the Sea, which was never finished. 

Captain John Smith stands out among the char¬ 
acters of history, as a truly remarkable man. He 
was honest, just and capable, and he worked hard. 
Few could equal him in enthusiasm or determina¬ 
tion. He was essentially a man of action. He was 
one of the most important figures in the colonisa¬ 
tion of the New World, and the accomplishment of 
this one thing was his dearest ambition. 


II 

Henry Hudson 

The Man Who Discovered the Hudson River 

H ENRY HUDSON was the celebrated navi¬ 
gator after whom the Hudson River, 
Hudson Bay and many steamboats and 
other things were named. Sometimes you will find 
his name spelled Hendrik Hudson and in many 
other ways, but they all stand for the same man, 
who was bom 'way back in the seventeenth century. 

Not very much is known about the early life of 
the famous navigator, and the first time that we 
hear anything particular about him is when he 
sailed from Greenwich, England, in command of 
an Arctic expedition. He was an Englishman him¬ 
self, and not Dutch, as some people imagine. As a 
matter of fact he lived right in the city of London 
and was a very good friend of another well-known 
sailor, Captain John Smith. 

The career of Henry Hudson really began with 
an English company which was entirely devoted to 
Arctic navigation. Somewhere around 1607 or 
1608 he made voyages in its service, the first one 
taking him near Greenland and Spitzenbergen, 
21 


22 Henry Hudson 

which you will find located in the Arctic Ocean, 
northwest and northeast of England. What he 
really wanted to do was to sail across the North 
Pole and discover some hitherto unknown expanse 
of water, which would lead him directly to the 
eastern coast of Asia. You must look these places 
up on your map and remember that, in those days, 
there were no maps of any consequence, and most 
people had not the slightest idea how far away 
other countries were or how large they really were. 

On his second voyage Hudson tried to pass be¬ 
tween Spitzenbergen and Nova Zembla, which is an 
island north of the extreme northern part of Rus¬ 
sia. The latitude of this part of the world is very 
high, and on this trip some of the sailors claimed 
that on that account they were able to see a real 
mermaid not far from the ship. They declared 
that she had the arms and head and body of a 
woman, but the lower half of her was like the tail 
of a fish, about the size of a halibut. Most people 
thought that what they really saw was a seal, which 
at that time was a creature quite unknown to 
English mariners. 

On his return to England, Hudson found that 
his sea voyages had made him famous. He had 
been nearer the Pole than anyone else had ever 
ventured before, and his skill at navigation had 
won him quite a reputation as a sailor. Almost 
immediately he received an offer from the Dutch 
East India Company, through the Dutch Consul, to 


Who Discovered the Hudson River 23 

go into its service. Although he soon had several 
other good offers he accepted that. of the Dutch 
Company and went over to Holland to start on his 
new voyages. Hudson’s connection with the East 
India Company is probably one reason why so 
many people think of him as a Dutchman, and 
always speak of him as Hendrik Hudson. Others 
say that he spent a good part of his early life in 
Holland and that that accounts for his foreign- 
sounding name. 

The following year Hudson started out on a new 
and far more daring voyage. With an eighty-ton 
yacht, The Half-Moon, and a crew of about twelve 
men, he set sail on the Zuyder Zee. Few men 
would have dared attempt such a trip with so slight 
an equipment, but Henry Hudson was little daunted 
by such trifles as these. With a courageous heart 
he sailed around the North Cape, the most extreme 
northern point of Norway, and again headed in 
the direction of Nova Zembla. The sea was so full 
of ice in this vicinity that it was impossible to make 
very much progress in that direction, so he was 
obliged to change his course. Turning about, he 
headed The Half-Mo on to cross the Atlantic Ocean, 
somewhere in the latitude of forty degrees. 

If you could have seen The Half-Moon you 
would never have believed that anyone could cross 
the Atlantic Ocean in such a vessel. It was small 
and so cramped between the decks that the crew 
could not even stand upright. Fortunately, they 


24 Henry Hudson 

were a strong, hardy lot of sailors who did not 
worry very much about personal comfort. In 
those days the sails on ships used to go crosswise 
instead of lengthwise, which made them look quite 
different from those we see today. A perfect 
copy of The Half-Moon was built by the Dutch 
and sent over to New York to take part in the 
Hudson-Fulton Celebration on the three hundredth 
anniversary of Hudson’s entry into New York 
Harbour. 

The long voyage of The Half-Moon across the 
Atlantic Ocean was filled with all sorts of exciting 
experiences and adventures for those on board the 
sturdy little vessel. On this trip Hudson discov¬ 
ered two important things which he had never 
thought of finding; one was the first sun-spot ever 
seen, and the other was a great number of whales 
about Spitzenbergen. 

In the rough weather and fierce gales on the 
ocean the foremast of The Half-Mo on was tom 
in two. This made navigation still more difficult, 
but at last the boat reached the eastern coast of 
what is now our United States, and dropped anchor 
in Penobscot Bay, where the voyagers went ashore 
to repair the damage. The crew cut down an 
entire pine tree and from this, in the course of 
several days, they managed to make a new mast, 
which was stronger and better than the first one. 
During this time they explored the nearby country 
and caught about fifty cod, more than a hundred 


Who Discovered the Hudson River 25 

lobsters, and a halibut of tremendous size, which 
kept them from suffering from hunger. 

From Penobscot Bay, Hudson went on to Cape 
Cod and then visited Delaware Bay and New York 
Harbour. There were many Indians on Manhattan 
Island at the time Hudson landed on that spot, 
and as soon as they saw The Half-Mo on sail into 
the bay they came out in their canoes, anxious to 
trade skins and other wares for the products of 
other countries. Hudson did not stay very long in 
this neighbourhood, for he wished to get on with 
his explorations as soon as possible. After leaving 
Manhattan he sailed up what is now called the 
Hudson River, as far as Troy, where he was 
obliged to stop on account of the shallow water 
which he found there. There were more Indians 
encamped in these parts and Hudson went ashore 
and visited some of them. In one Indian hut he 
was entertained by a chief who killed a fatted dog 
and a fine pair of pigeons for his supper. Rather 
an unusual meal for a white man. 

Hudson now turned around and went back to 
Europe, landing in England because several of the 
crew were English and refused to go any further 
when they had finally crossed the ocean. Then, 
when King James heard that Hudson had actually 
returned from another successful voyage he re¬ 
fused to let him go back to Holland at all, declaring 
that he was far too valuable an Englishman to serve 
any other country. The king insisted that he return 


26 Henry Hudson 

to the original English company for whom he had 
first sailed, and Hudson was compelled to notify 
the Dutch East India Company and abide by His 
Majesty’s wish, for in those days the request of 
the king was little less than a command that no 
one dared disobey. 

The great navigator did not stay long at home, 
however, and soon embarked on another expedi¬ 
tion to the New World. He crossed the Atlantic 
Ocean again, but this time he entered what is now 
called the Hudson Strait, between Baffin Island and 
Northeastern Canada. From there he proceeded to 
what is now known as Hudson Bay, a great body 
of water, larger than the Black Sea and the Caspian 
Sea combined. You will have no trouble finding 
this on the map, for it is right in the eastern part 
of the Dominion of Canada. 

All went smoothly at first, but it was in the fall 
of the year when Hudson reached the large bay, 
and the ice soon became so heavy that his boat 
stuck fast in it and was frozen in one spot for six 
long months. This was in the extreme southern 
portion of Hudson Bay, which is now called St. 
James’ Bay. When the ice finally broke, late in the 
spring of the next year, the crew insisted upon 
returning at once to England because they felt 
that they had had more than enough of hardship 
and suffering through their long, cold winter on 
the ice. 

Henry Hudson had no desire to return to En- 


Who Discovered the Hudson River 27 

gland at that moment. Now that spring had come 
at last he was filled with the great desire to travel 
on, in the hope of discovering a new way to the 
Pacific Ocean. He felt that the worst was really 
over and urged the men to hold on a little longer 
until real success should be theirs. But the sailors 
were a rough lot, who cared for nothing except 
their pay, and they were heartily sick of the life 
they had been forced to endure for the past few 
months. So they started a terrible mutiny and 
ended by placing Hudson and his son and a few 
sick men in an open boat and themselves sailing 
in the big ship for England. Their end was lit¬ 
tle better than that of their commander, for some 
were slain by Indians before they reached the 
Atlantic Ocean, while the remaining number 
were thrown into prison soon after their arrival in 
England. 

Every effort was made to find Henry Hudson 
and his companions, who were so cruelly deserted, 
but without success. A search party that left 
England as soon as they heard the terrible news, 
found no trace of any of the men. It was a sad 
and untimely end for a really amazing man, who 
devoted almost his entire life to navigation. The 
voyages of Hudson were the real cause of starting 
the Hudson Bay fur trade, and the Spanish whale 
fisheries, and he was largely responsible for bring¬ 
ing the Dutch people to New York. 


Ill 

Maria Mitchell 

An American Girl Who Discovered a Comet 

M ARIA MITCHELL came of sturdy old 
New England stock, for her mother was 
a Quaker and a descendant of Benjamin 
Franklin. She was the third of ten children and 
was born at Nantucket, where her father taught 
school. Mr. Mitchell had begun teaching when he 
was eighteen, with the smallest salary imaginable. 
In the summer months he supported his family by 
fishing, for you know, of course, that Nantucket is 
one of the greatest fishing towns in this country. 

There were so many little Mitchells that until 
some of them were old enough to do something to 
help themselves, it was really quite a problem to 
look out for them all. Neither teaching nor fishing 
brought in a tremendous amount of money and for 
a time Mr. Mitchell gave up his school and tried 
turning whale oil into soap. But he missed his 
other work and finally went back to it. In his leis¬ 
ure hours he studied the stars and gradually learned 
so much about them that the United States Coast 
Survey decided to pay him a hundred dollars a year 

28 


29 


Who Discovered a Comet 

for his work in astronomy. This does not sound 
like a fortune, perhaps, but to a man with a large 
family it seemed like a good deal at that time. 

Maria went to her father’s school and showed a 
great liking for the study of mathematics. Mr. 
Mitchell believed that girls should receive just the 
same education as boys and just as thorough a one, 
too, and he taught Maria many things that other 
little girls never learned. He gave her a special 
training in the study of navigation, which she par¬ 
ticularly enjoyed. She was a good scholar and 
liked to learn about everything she could. 

There was one thing that Maria liked to do more 
than anything else. This was to go with her father 
to the little observatory he had built, and to look at 
the stars. They seemed so wonderful and so far 
off and he told her so many interesting stories 
about them that she kept wanting to know more 
and more and asked all sorts of questions about 
their real size and shape and how many miles away 
they were. Mr. Mitchell was very pleased that his 
little girl had the same tastes as himself and he 
taught her all he could about the marvelous science 
of astronomy. 

When Maria was sixteen she went to a private 
school for one year. Then she accepted the posi¬ 
tion of librarian of the Nantucket Athenaeum at 
sixty dollars for the first year, seventy-five for the 
second and one hundred for all the years after that. 
Maria liked the work, but she knew she would 


30 Maria Mitchell 

never grow rich on the salary she earned. In her 
spare time she continued to help her father in his 
observatory, and before long she knew almost as 
much about the stars as he did. By that time Mr. 
Mitchell had gained quite a reputation by his hard 
work and deep interest in astronomy and he was 
able to earn a little more money by writing articles 
for magazines and by lecturing now and then. 

Maria never wasted a single minute of her pre¬ 
cious time. She worked, worked, worked, and 
did all she could to help her mother bring up 
the younger children besides. She read all the 
books she possibly could, and she knit dozens and 
dozens of warm socks for her father and brothers 
and sisters. She became such an accomplished 
knitter that she could read a book and knit at the 
same time. 

In October, 1847, Maria Mitchell’s earnest ef¬ 
forts were rewarded, for she discovered an un¬ 
known comet through her telescope. In great 
excitement she told her father the good news and 
he immediately wrote to the director of the Cam¬ 
bridge Observatory, who told Edward Everett, 
president of Harvard College, about it. Mr. Ev¬ 
erett then wrote to King Frederick VI, of Den¬ 
mark, who had promised a medal to whoever 
discovered a new comet, and in the course of time 
the prize was awarded to the girl from Nantucket. 
Other people saw Maria’s comet a day or two later, 
but she was the very first to observe it. Imagine 


Who Discovered a Comet 31 

how proud and happy the Mitchell family must 
have been! 

The year after Maria’s great discovery she was 
very much pleased to be made an honorary member 
of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. 
She was the first woman to receive this honour. 
Two years later she was elected to the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, and 
after that, many other honours were heaped upon 
her. She was presented with a telescope by the 
women of America, which became one of her dear¬ 
est possessions. 

Some years later Miss Mitchell sailed for 
■Europe. She had never travelled very far before, 
so you can easily imagine that she looked forward 
to visiting strange countries and seeing new sights, 
with a great deal of pleasure. Everywhere she 
went she was entertained and honoured by famous 
astronomers and scientists, and sometimes by roy¬ 
alty. I could not begin to tell you about all the 
interesting people she met and her wildest dreams 
had never pictured so wonderful an adventure as 
this one turned out to be. 

After traveling for a year, Miss Mitchell re¬ 
turned to Nantucket and was greeted with joy by 
her parents. Not long after her return her mother 
died and Maria and her father moved to Lynn 
because they could not bear to live in the old- town 
without her. Maria bought a house with sixteen 
hundred dollars that she had saved out of her own 


32 Maria Mitchell 

earnings, and she and her father lived there very 
happily for five years. Mr. Mitchell was then re¬ 
ceiving a small pension from the government and 
his daughter was earning a few hundreds a year 
from different astronomical societies. 

In 1865 Vassar College opened its doors to three 
hundred and fifty students. When the observatory 
was completed Maria Mitchell was invited to have 
charge of it, as professor of astronomy. Mr. 
Mitchell packed up his belongings again and ac¬ 
companied his daughter to her new post. It gave 
him great pleasure in his old age, to know that his 
daughter was making a success of the work that 
he had always loved so much. Miss Mitchell and 
her pupils soon recorded the paths of four thou¬ 
sand meteors and obtained much valuable data 
about their movements. 

Miss Mitchell visited Europe for a second time 
a few years after accepting her position at Vassar. 
On her return she was elected President of the 
Association for the Advancement of Women, 
which position she held for two terms. Before 
leaving the college she started a fund to endow 
the chair of astronomy, which was completed after 
her death and called the Maria Mitchell Endow¬ 
ment Fund. 

Miss Mitchell died in the year 1889, not long 
after her retirement from Vassar. She was buried 
in Prospect Hill Cemetery, not far from her old 
home in Nantucket. Her birthplace is now open 


33 


Who Discovered a Comet 

to the public, and in it are kept collections of shells, 
pressed wild flowers of Nantucket, and whatever 
else can be obtained pertaining to science. The 
house is built in the charming style of many old 
Nantucket homes, and there is a look-out on. the 
roof from which they would watch the ships com¬ 
ing in from sea, long years ago. Opposite the 
house is a library called the Maria Mitchell 
Associated Library, and beside it is an observa¬ 
tory which contains her telescope and her books 
about astronomy. 

Phoebe Mitchell Kendall has written a book that 
will tell you a great deal more about this interesting 
woman. It is called: Maria Mitchell — Life, Let¬ 
ters, and Journals . 


IV 

Benjamin Franklin 

Philosopher and Patriot 


B ENJAMIN FRANKLIN was a great 
American who played a large part in the 
important events of this country. He was 
born in Boston and baptised in the famous Old 
South Church, way back in the early days of the 
eighteenth century. His father was of English 
birth and earned his living at the trade of a tallow 
chandler. He was twice married and Benjamin 
was one of the youngest of a family of seventeen 
children. His mother was the daughter of Peter 
Folger, of Nantucket, one of the earliest settlers in 
New England. 

As soon as they were old enough, Benjamin’s 
brothers were put to work as apprentices at differ¬ 
ent trades. In those days school was not considered 
so necessary as it is today, and boys went to work 
much younger than they do now. Benjamin was 
sent to grammar school when he was about eight 
years old, but he only remained for a year or two 
and learned very little except writing and arith¬ 
metic. He wrote a clear hand but was not nearly 
so good at figures. 


34 


35 


A Philosopher and Patriot 

Mr. Franklin at first thought that young Benja¬ 
min should be a minister, but changed his mind 
and at ten put him to work at his own trade. This 
did not appeal to the boy in any way, for his mind 
was completely taken up with wild dreams of the 
sea. More than anything else in the world he 
longed to be a sailor! He had lived near the sea 
all his life and he loved boats and swimming and 
everything that had anything to do with the water. 
This idea did not please his father because one 
of his boys had run away from home for the same 
reason. He did everything he could to interest 
Benjamin in other things. 

Mr. Franklin was most anxious to have all his 
children as well educated as possible and at table he 
encouraged them to talk with him on many sub¬ 
jects. In his Autobiography, Benjamin Franklin 
says that in this way their attention was called to 
the conversation rather than the food, and they 
always ate what was put before them without fuss¬ 
ing or bothering about it. Then, when he grew up 
to be a man he was able to eat anything and did 
not have a lot of silly likes and dislikes as many 
of us do. 

Benjamin loved to read, and Pilgrim's Progress 
and Plutarch's Lives were among his great favour¬ 
ites. There were not many books to be had in 
those days, and if anyone were fortunate enough to 
have a small library of his own he was sure to be a 
very popular person. Benjamin read in the eve- 


36 Benjamin Franklin 

nings and on Sundays and devoured all the books 
he could find. 

In 1717 his brother John returned from En¬ 
gland with a printing press and type and set up 
business in Boston. Although Benjamin still 
longed to be a sailor, he felt there was no use 
thinking about it any more, so he agreed to work 
as an apprentice for his brother until he was 
twenty-one. A few years after this John Franklin 
began to print the second newspaper that appeared 
in this country, which was known as the New En¬ 
gland Courant. The first was the Boston News 
Letter . Two hundred years ago one newspaper 
was considered enough, but, today, when there are 
many, many thousands there are still new ones 
starting all the time. 

Benjamin delivered the papers to the customers 
and learned a good deal about printing in his 
brother’s office. After a time he began to write 
little articles of his own which he left at the office 
without signing any name, so that John might not 
guess who had sent them. When his brother was 
imprisoned for something he had said in his news¬ 
paper, Benjamin printed the paper by himself and 
worked very hard at his job. But John Franklin 
did not really treat him very well, and at last he 
broke his agreement and left the office forever. 

Benjamin Franklin was just seventeen when he 
ran away from home and took passage on a boat 
for New York. He hoped to earn his own living 


A Philosopher and Patriot 37 

in that city; but he could not find any work, so he 
continued his journey to Philadelphia. Traveling 
by coach, on foot and at last by rowboat, he finally 
reached the Quaker city. Hungry and very weary, 
he entered an old church and soon fell fast asleep. 

Benjamin woke up feeling refreshed and more 
hopeful, and he gathered his remaining pennies to¬ 
gether and purchased two huge rolls to appease his 
appetite. Then he walked down one of the main 
streets of the city munching one of these tempting 
morsels and little caring who saw him. It so hap¬ 
pened that a young lady, looking out of her front 
doorway, spied this strange-looking young man, 
and laughed at the sight. Some years later this 
same young lady, Miss Deborah Read, became Mrs. 
Benjamin Franklin, and she and her husband often 
laughed about the first time she ever saw him. 

Benjamin Franklin went to work in a printer’s 
office soon after his arrival in Philadelphia. By 
this time he knew a good deal about the business 
and was a valuable workman. He met many in¬ 
teresting people, and when he had been there a year 
or two the Governor sent him to England to get 
the proper equipment to set up a printing business 
of his own, promising to help him to pay for it. 
But alas! When Benjamin arrived on the other 
side of the water, he found that the Governor’s 
ready promises amounted to nothing but talk. He 
stayed in England for more than a year, working 
at various things, and even considered opening a 


38 Benjamin Franklin 

swimming school there, but he finally returned to 
this country. 

Franklin went back to the printing business in 
Philadelphia and worked harder than ever. He 
was careful of his money and was not extravagant 
or foolish in his habits. He laid a strict set of 
rules for his life and conduct and said: “ Truth, 
sincerity and integrity in dealings between man and 
man are of the utmost importance to the felicity of 
life/’ That he was far more industrious than most 
young men, Dr. Baird, a neighbour of his, assures 
us. He said: “The industry of this Franklin is 
superior to anything I ever saw of the kind; I see 
him still at work when I go home from the club, 
and he is at work again before his neighbours are 
out of bed.” 

In 1730, Franklin started The Gazette, which 
was different from any newspaper that had ap¬ 
peared before that time. The type was better and 
the print was clearer than any that had been used 
before. The news was carefully gone over and 
the editor never allowed anything to be printed that 
was libelous or abusive in any way. 

Franklin also printed paper currency and opened 
a small stationer shop, about this time. Then he 
started a subscription library with about fifty sub¬ 
scribers. There was not a single good bookseller’s 
shop anywhere in this country except Boston, and 
that was a long way from Philadelphia. Most 
people were obliged to send all the way to England 


A Philosopher and Patriot 39 

for their books, and it was really most difficult to 
find anything to read. In 1742 Benjamin Franklin 
started the Philadelphia Public Library. 

To tell you everything that this wonderful 
American citizen did would take many pages, so I 
am not going to pretend to do it. I hope you will 
admire him so much that you will want to read 
more about him in bigger books than this. He 
assisted in the founding of a college that later 
became the University of Pennsylvania. He was 
Postmaster-General for the Colonies, and did his 
best to prevent the Revolutionary War. He was 
elected to Congress and was one of the signers of 
the Declaration of Independence, as well as one of 
a committee to draft that great document. He was 
first Minister to the Court of France and Governor 
of the state of Pennsylvania. He started national 
defence and received medals and degrees for his 
services from societies and institutions all over 
the world. 

Benjamin Franklin found it hard to be orderly 
himself, yet he really loved and respected order. It 
was through his efforts that the streets of the city 
were properly cleaned, swept and paved, for the 
first time. He founded the first association for 
extinguishing fires and, later, the first insurance 
against fire; he also discovered the method of de¬ 
fending houses against lightning. In addition to 
all these ways of protecting people from fire, he 
invented a new open stove which kept many houses 


40 Benjamin Franklin 

warm. This was known as the “ Franklin stove,” 
and is still used in many houses today. 

Poor Richard's Almanac was an almanac ar¬ 
ranged by Benjamin Franklin, and contained many 
clever sayings, which were afterwards published 
under the title of The Way to Wealth. He also 
wrote The Busybody, a series of papers rather like 
the Spectator, but a good deal more entertaining. 
His Autobiography is so delightful that I hope 
some day you will read it for yourself. 

Franklin had a very attractive family home on 
Market Street. There was a beautiful mulberry 
tree in the garden, and he would often sit there and 
have tea with his friends. He loved to entertain, 
and all the distinguished men of other countries 
always came to see him whenever they visited 
America. There is a picture of Franklin sitting in 
his garden, in a collection in Boston, and there is 
also a famous portrait of him, painted by the 
French artist, Duplessis, in the same city. His por¬ 
trait was painted so many times that he became 
heartily sick of having it done. He lived abroad 
for years and was received by many of the crowned 
heads of Europe. 

Benjamin Franklin had two children, a son and a 
daughter. The boy died of smallpox, when quite 
young, and his father deeply regretted that he had 
not been vaccinated. The daughter married a Mr. 
Bache, so there are no descendants of Benjamin 
Franklin by the same name today. Franklin died 


A Philosopher and Patriot 41 

in 1790, at the age of eighty-four. He was buried 
in Christ Church Burying-ground, and Congress 
appointed a general mourning throughout the 
United States after his death. 

Although Franklin became a loyal citizen of 
Philadelphia, he never forgot his native city. 
When he died he left a sum of money, the interest 
of which was to be used for silver medals to be 
given as “ honourary rewards ” to the scholars of 
Boston. Thousands of children have received these 
Franklin medals with great pride. 

The life of Benjamin Franklin shows us what a 
man can do who has few opportunities and many 
obstacles in his way, if he has the determination 
and will to do it. He was a great public-spirited 
citizen whose name we remember with pride and 
affection. There is an interesting statue of Frank¬ 
lin in the Newark Public Library, called “ Franklin 
and His Whistle,” which represents an incident of 
his boyhood when his brother told him he paid too 
much for a whistle that he had just purchased. 
After that, whenever Franklin wanted to buy any¬ 
thing that he thought was too expensive he would 
say: “ Remember the whistle.” There are many 
other statues and memorials to Franklin, including 
a fine bronze one by Greenough in front of the 
City Hall in Boston. 


y 

Alexander Hamilton 
A Famous Lawyer and Statesman 

A lexander Hamilton has been called 

by many different names. He is sometimes 
spoken of as the “ Framer of the Constitu¬ 
tion,” and again as the “ Young West Indian,” 
because he was bom at Nevis, one of the Leeward 
Islands in the West Indies. He is truly one of the 
most remarkable figures in the whole of American 
history, and one that should surely appeal to all 
boys and girls. 

Alexander Hamilton, the son of a Scotch father 
and a French mother, was born in 1757. His 
father was a not very prosperous merchant, and 
when Alexander was a small boy he was put to 
work in the counting house of a rich American 
merchant named Cruger. He showed such unusual 
ability and skill at the business that when his em¬ 
ployer went abroad for a time, he left the thirteen- 
year-old boy at home in charge of his business. 
Alexander attended to his duties so well that his 
employer was more than pleased. He wrote ex¬ 
ceptionally well, and at fourteen astonished every- 
42 


A Lawyer and Statesman 43 

one by his powerful description of a storm in the 
West Indies. 

Mr. Hamilton felt that his boy should have a 
better education than he could give him in the West 
Indies, so he sent him to a grammar school in 
Elizabethtown, New Jersey. At seventeen he en¬ 
tered King’s College, which is now Columbia Uni¬ 
versity, and showed himself a very brilliant scholar, 
studying medicine at the same time as his regular 
college course. It was not long before he led most 
of the debates and proved himself a fine orator. 

When signs of trouble began to show between 
Great Britain and her Colonies, young Hamilton 
wrote a series of articles in defence of the Colonies 
which called instant attention to him because of 
their extreme brilliancy and cleverness. A visit to 
Boston made his sympathies with the Colonies 
stronger than ever and made him anxious to enlist 
in their cause. When the Revolutionary War 
began, he was made a captain of artillery at the 
age of nineteen. He was a most distinguished 
soldier and was made aide-de-camp to General 
Washington. 

Alexander Hamilton was in the thickest part of 
the fighting during the war, and led an artillery 
company at the Battle of Long Island. He fought 
on the Harlem plains and at New Brunswick, 
Trenton and Princeton. When he was only twenty 
Washington gave him the rank of lieutenant- 
colonel, which was a great honour for so young a 


44 


Alexander Hamilton 


man. He led the last cavalry charge at the Battle 
of Yorktown when Lord Cornwallis surrendered, 
and completed his military career at twenty-five as 
a full colonel. All his exploits showed courage and 
daring and he was extremely popular with the men 
as well as with his fellow officers. Today, there is 
a beautiful monument at Trenton, which stands on 
the very spot where Hamilton fought. 

Washington and his young aide-de-camp were 
the best of friends, but Hamilton unfortunately 
possessed a very hot temper, and one day he and 
his General had a serious disagreement. Later, 
however, he became Secretary of the Treasury 
under Washington, and held this important office 
for six years, leaving a remarkable record behind 
him. Alexander Hamilton proved himself a great 
financier, and it was through him that the country 
was saved from bankruptcy and failure. Daniel 
Webster said of him: “ He smote the rock of the 
national resources and abundant streams of revenue 
gushed forth. He touched the dead corpse of pub¬ 
lic credit and it sprang upon its feet.” The Alex¬ 
ander Hamilton Institute in New York City was 
named for him. 

At the age of twenty-three Hamilton married a 
daughter of General Schuyler. Mrs. Hamilton was 
a woman of fine character and a great help to her 
husband throughout all his career. She started the 
first orphan asylum in New York City, and a me¬ 
morial service was held in her honour fifty years 


45 


A Lawyer and Statesman 

after this event. The Hamiltons had eight chil¬ 
dren, six sons and two daughters. The oldest son, 
Philip, was killed in a duel, and this was a great 
grief to his devoted father. The youngest son was 
born twenty years after the first Philip, and was 
named after his older brother, and his grandfather 
Schuyler. 

Hamilton became a member of Congress a year 
after his marriage, and from that time he was a 
prominent figure in public life. His career was one 
long series of brilliant achievements, seldom ac¬ 
complished by a man twice his age, and his story 
reads much like a fairy tale. He was framer and 
signer of the Constitution of the United States, 
first secretary of the treasury, one of the best law¬ 
yers in New York, major-general and afterwards 
commander-in-chief of the armies of the United 
States, and finally America’s leading statesman. 

George Washington would only consent to be¬ 
come Commander-in-Chief of the army, in 1798, 
if Alexander Hamilton would be his Major- 
General. He believed that his former-aide-de-camp 
had more ability than most men, and he was so 
just and fair that he wished to give the best man 
the job, in spite of any personal differences they 
may have had. It was on Washington’s death that 
Hamilton became Commander-in-Chief of the 
army, at a time when there appeared to be great 
danger of a war with France. Happily, this war 
was averted. 


46 


Alexander Hamilton 


When Alexander Hamilton was practicing law 
in New York, his fame spread far and wide, for 
people said that he had never lost a case. A great 
rival of his was Aaron Burr, who had also been 
aide-de-camp to Washington at one time, and who, 
later, became Vice-President of the United States. 
These two men were as different as night and day. 
Hamilton was honest and straightforward to the 
highest degree, and he disapproved of some of 
Burr’s methods in politics. When Burr tried to 
become Governor of New York, his rival stopped 
him. Infuriated and jealous of Hamilton, Burr 
challenged him to a duel. 

Alexander Hamilton hated dueling above all 
things. He had lost his beloved oldest son through 
this means, and in recent years he had often tried 
to establish anti-dueling laws, but he was a brave 
man and he did not want anyone to misinterpret 
his refusal to fight, or to call him a coward, so he 
accepted the challenge and went out to meet his 
fate. On that unhappy day in 1804, he met his 
death with the same unflinching courage and cool¬ 
ness with which he had met all the great events of 
his life. No wonder his friends had called him the 
“ little lion.” The duel took place at Weehawken, 
New Jersey, opposite New York, Hamilton simply 
firing his pistol into the air. This affair ended the 
old custom of dueling. 

Alexander Hamilton lived part of his life in 
New York, not far from Trinity Church, and a 


47 


A Lawyer and Statesman 

few years in Philadelphia. The unusual activity 
of his early days made him long more and more for 
the peace and quiet of the country, as years went 
on. He purchased a large tract of land about eight 
miles from the Battery, in what was then an open 
and unsettled stretch of country. This part of the 
city from One Hundred and Forty-first to One 
Hundred and Forty-fifth Streets, at Tenth and St. 
Nicholas Avenues, is closely populated today, but 
more than a century ago Alexander Hamilton went 
shooting and fishing not far from his home. 

Hamilton loved gardening and farming, and he 
took great pleasure in the healthful life of the coun¬ 
try. To be sure, it was a long, long journey to 
town, but they often stayed with their friends in 
the city and really did not mind it. Those were 
the stage coach days when a stage ran out to 
Forty-second Street about three times a week. 
Think of that today when there are cars headed for 
that part of the city every single minute. The 
Hamilton house stood at One Hundred and Forty- 
second Street and Tenth Avenue, and is still stand¬ 
ing, but has been moved next door to St. Euke’s 
Episcopal Church, and is now a school. 

At the time of his death, Alexander Hamilton 
was only forty-seven years old, in the very prime 
of life with many good years ahead of him. His 
short life was a brilliant and eventful one, and he 
has left his stamp upon the history of his time. 
He is a splendid example of an honest, courageous 


48 Alexander Hamilton 

and ambitious young man, full of enthusiasm and 
love of life, and who entered heart and soul into 
every new task he set out to accomplish. Mrs. 
Hamilton outlived him by many years, and was 
past ninety-five at the time of her death. 

Hamilton’s writings fill seven volumes, and were 
published by his son, after his father’s death. He 
has always been a popular character in fiction, and 
many stories have been written around his colour¬ 
ful life. One of the most interesting of these is 
The Conqueror , by Gertrude Atherton. In the 
American Statesmen series, Henry Cabot Lodge 
includes the life of Alexander Hamilton, and there 
is another biography about him by Vandenberg; 
this is called The Greatest American. This same 
author, who has made a deep study of the great 
statesman, has written another book entitled, If 
Hamilton Were Here Today. Then there is a Life 
of Alexander Hamilton , by his grandson, Allan 
McLane Hamilton. The more you learn about 
Alexander Hamilton, the more you will want to 
know about him. 


VI 

Betsy Ross 

The Woman Who Made the First American Flag 

Y OU all know the story of the man who 
wrote the words of The Star-Spangled 
Banner, so I am sure you would like to 
hear about the woman who made the first real 
“ star-spangled banner.” She is best known to the 
world as “ Betsy Ross,” because that was her name 
at the time she was asked to make the flag. 

Elizabeth Ross was the daughter of a Quaker 
shipbuilder and carpenter, named Samuel Griscom. 
Her father helped build the famous old Independ¬ 
ence Hall in Philadelphia, and must have been very 
proud of his part in the work. Her mother was 
Rebecca James, a sister of Abel James. Betsy was 
the eighth child in a family of seventeen children, 
and was born in 1752. 

With such a large family to take care of, it was 
very necessary that the older girls and boys should 
earn their own living, so, as soon as she was old 
enough Betsy started out to learn the upholstery 
business at Webster’s, the best establishment of its 
kind in Philadelphia. At this time, John Ross, the 
49 


50 


Betsy Ross 

son of an Episcopal clergyman, was learning the 
same business, and he and Betsy worked side by 
side in the upholstery shop. They fell in love and, 
when Betsy was twenty-one, they were married. 
On account of marrying outside of her own church, 
Elizabeth Griscom was disowned from the Society 
of Friends. 

Soon after their marriage, John and Betsy Ross 
opened an upholstery shop of their own at number 
89 Arch Street, which house is still standing, 
although the number has since been changed to 239. 
Young Mrs. Ross was such an expert with her 
needle that her fame soon spread about the city, 
and she gained the reputation of being the finest 
seamstress in Philadelphia. A young girl from out 
of town, who was visiting a friend, once had the 
misfortune to tear a beautiful new gown, which she 
wished to wear to a party. She was told to go at 
once to Betsy Ross, who repaired the horrid tear 
so cleverly that the delighted girl declared that the 
darn was by far the handsomest part of the gown. 

Betsy Ross was not only skillful with her needle; 
she was far more intelligent and active than the 
average woman of her time. She was an excellent 
housewife and neighbour, and people often called 
upon her for advice and assistance in times of sick¬ 
ness and trouble because they admired and re¬ 
spected her ability. 

During the Revolutionary War, John Ross' 
uncle, George Ross, a Congressman, and later a 


51 


The First American Flag 

signer of the Declaration of Independence, secured 
for his nephew the position of guarding some of 
the military stores on one of the city wharves. A 
few months later the young man received an injury 
from which he very soon died. He was buried in 
the graveyard of Christ Church, not far from his 
home. The young widow of twenty-four continued 
to carry on the upholstery business that she and her 
husband had started three years before, applying 
herself to her work more diligently than ever. 

One day, about a month before the signing of 
the Declaration of Independence, Betsy Ross re¬ 
ceived a visit of great importance and interest from 
three prominent men. These were George Ross, 
of whom we have already spoken, Robert Morris, 
one of the commanding figures of the Revolution 
and also a signer of the Declaration of Indepen¬ 
dence, and no less a person than the great George 
Washington himself, at that time on a visit to 
Philadelphia. In the little room at the rear of her 
house in Arch Street, Mrs. Ross received her visi¬ 
tors and heard what they had to say. 

George Ross had told Washington that the 
widow of his nephew, John Ross, was an excellent 
needlewoman, and had brought him to ask her if 
she could make a flag. Betsy Ross said that she 
had never made one, but she could try. Then the 
gentlemen showed her a rough design which she 
carefully examined. The stars in the drawing were 
six-pointed and the clever young woman at once 


52 


Betsy Ross 

called their attention to the fact that five-pointed 
stars would be much better. They admitted that 
they thought so, too, but they believed that the five- 
pointed stars would be much more difficult to make. 
With a snip of her scissors Mrs. Ross explained to 
them how simple it was to make them, and they 
changed their design according to her suggestion. 

After the three men had gone away Betsy Ross 
went to a shipping merchant whose name they had 
given her, and borrowed an old ship’s colour, so 
that she might learn exactly how a flag was made. 
In a few days a new design was sent to her, beauti¬ 
fully coloured by a very good artist. This new 
design had thirteen five-pointed stars arranged in 
a circle on a blue field, with thirteen stripes, alter¬ 
nating red and white. Betsy Ross at once set to 
work on the first flag, putting her finest and most 
exquisite stitches into the task. When it was fin¬ 
ished, the men who had commissioned her to do 
the work were so delighted with the result that 
they ordered her to make as many flags as she 
could, and supplied her with the money to buy the 
bunting. 

The first flag was run up to the peak of one of 
the vessels lying at the wharf in the Delaware 
River and was welcomed with shouts and cheers 
from the spectators. What actually became of this 
flag is not known, but the pattern of it was ap¬ 
proved by Congress not long after the making. 
The words of the flag resolution read: “ Resolved, 


53 


The First American Flag 

that the flag of the thirteen United States shall 
be thirteen stripes, alternating white and red, and 
that the Union be thirteen white stars on a blue 
field.” 

The very day after the flag resolution was 
adopted Mrs. Betsy Ross married Joseph Ashburn, 
a sea captain in the merchant marine service. She 
continued her upholstery business after her second 
marriage, occupying herself very busily while her 
husband was far away on his dangerous voyages 
on the sea. He was finally captured by the English 
and sent to a military prison near Plymouth, where 
not long afterwards he died. John Claypoole, a 
fellow prisoner, who had been an officer in the 
United States Army, was released soon after the 
death of Joseph Ashburn, and returned to his home 
in Philadelphia, bringing with him the dying mes¬ 
sages of his friend to Mrs. Ashburn and her two 
daughters. This was the beginning of a warm 
friendship between Betsy Ross Ashburn and young 
Claypoole, which resulted in their marriage. 

John Claypoole received an appointment in the 
Custom House and Betsy continued her now pros¬ 
perous business. On account of the wounds he 
had received and the hardships he had endured in 
prison, her husband was never very strong again, 
and before many years became a confirmed invalid. 
But Betsy Claypoole had more strength and courage 
than many men, and she kept her shoulder firmly to 
the wheel, continuing to make flags for the govern- 


54 


Betsy Ross 

ment for more than fifty years. Her four Clay- 
poole daughters assisted her in this work, and one 
of them made flags for twenty years after the death 
of her mother. 

Betsy Ross lived to be eighty-four years old, and 
died in 1836. She was completely blind for some 
years before her death, but her energy and diligence 
still persisted, for she sewed strips of rags together 
for rugs and carpets, allowing one of her grand¬ 
children to sort the colours for her. We must not 
only remember her as the woman who made the 
first flag, but as a fine patriotic and true citizen of 
this country. She was sometimes spoken of as the 
“ Little Rebel.” 

There is no portrait of Betsy Ross in existence, 
although there are several of her daughters. She 
Was known to be vivacious and attractive to look 
upon, however, and must really have made a very 
charming picture. There is a painting by Charles 
Weisgerber called the “ Birth of Our Nation's 
Flag,” which shows Betsy Ross as the artist 
imagined her, sitting before the old fireplace in the 
Arch Street house, consulting with her three noted 
visitors about the new flag. 

On the front of the old Flag House at 239 Arch 
Street are the words: “ Birthplace of Old Glory.” 
The house itself is now the property of the Betsy 
Ross Memorial Association, and the front room is 
used as a little shop or salesroom. The old Ross 
pew in Christ Church is marked with a national 


The First American Flag 55 

flag. Betsy herself is buried in the Mount Moriah 
Burying Ground. 

“ The simple stone of Betsy Ross 
Is covered now with mold and moss. 

But still her deathless banner flies 
And keeps the colour of the skies . 

A nation thrills, a nation bleeds, 

A nation follows where it leads” 


VII 

Martin Luther 

The Founder of Protestant Civilisation 

M ARTIN LUTHER fought for his reli¬ 
gious beliefs as truly as any soldier ever 
fought for his country. In his wonderful 
book called Heroes and Hero-Worship, Thomas 
Carlyle says: “Luther, too, was of our spiritual 
Heroes: A Prophet to his country and time.” 
And yet this great man was of very humble 
parentage, and for a long time no one ever 
dreamed that his name would be one of the great¬ 
est in history. 

Martin was the son of Hans Luther, a poor mine 
labourer, who lived in the village of Mohra, not 
far from the Thuringian Forest, in Germany. He 
was bom at Eisleben, in the province of Saxony, 
where his parents had gone to visit the fair, in 
1483, the same year that the great painter, 
Raphael, was born in Italy. He had six brothers 
and sisters, and as the family had very little 
money to live on, he was sometimes sent out to 
beg for alms in the street, as small boys often did 
in those days. 


56 


Founder of Protestant Civilisation 57 

Hans Luther was a good and religious man, 
although he was very stern and strict with his chil¬ 
dren. He wanted to have them receive good edu¬ 
cations, and denied himself many things on their 
account. Soon after the birth of Martin, the Luth¬ 
ers moved to Mans feld, a valley town, a few miles 
from Mohra. The father and mother worked as 
hard as they could and never wasted a moment of 
their time, and before many years had passed, they 
had their reward and became more prosperous than 
they had ever been before. Mr. Luther was re¬ 
spected in the town and was made an elder in the 
church. 

The boy, Martin, was not a strong and husky 
child. But he loved his books and studied faith¬ 
fully at school so that he would be a credit to his 
worthy father. He received the degree of Doctor 
of Philosophy from the college at Erfurt, at the age 
of twenty-one and began to study law, as his father 
earnestly wished him to do. He did not feel, how¬ 
ever, that this was his true calling, and the loss of 
a dear friend and a strong religious tendency finally 
decided him to devote his life to the service of God. 
Shortly after this he entered the Augustine convent 
as a monk. 

This decision of his son was a great disappoint¬ 
ment to Mr. Luther, and he consented to it much 
against his will. Martin was obliged to work very 
hard indeed at the convent, harder than he had ever 
worked in his whole life before, but at the end of 


58 Martin Luther 

two years, when he was ordained a priest, he was 
very happy. About the same time he became a pro¬ 
fessor at the college of Wittenberg, where the 
Elector, Frederick the Wise of Saxony, had 
founded a university a year or two before. (An 
Elector was one of the great princes who elected 
the Emperor or King.) 

Not long after this Luther and another monk 
were sent on a special mission to Rome, where 
Pope Julius II ruled in regal splendour. The 
two travelers walked the entire distance, taking 
about six weeks to make the journey. Luther 
was shocked and amazed at the worldliness of 
the old Italian city and, after he had seen it, 
exclaimed: “If there is a hell, Rome must be 
built above it.” 

After his return to Wittenberg, Luther began 
to preach, and before long thousands flocked to 
hear his remarkable sermons. He wrote religious 
pamphlets and philosophical books, and the people 
began to wonder who this outspoken young man 
might be. He was a great thinker, and he could 
not agree with all the doctrines of the Roman 
Catholic Church. 

After the death of Pope Julius II, in 1513, Leo 
X succeeded him. The great Italian master, 
Raphael, painted wonderful portraits of both of 
these popes, which are in the Pitti Palace in Flor¬ 
ence. Things had gone from bad to worse in 
Rome, and when the Pope wanted more money 


Founder of Protestant Civilisation 59 

to build the great church of St. Peter’s, he ac¬ 
quired it by the sale of pardons for the for¬ 
giveness of sins, which were called Indulgences. 
People believed that the Pope had the power to 
forgive them anything, if they paid something for 
the privilege. 

Martin Luther did not believe that the Pope had 
the power to forgive people their sins, and he felt 
that it was wrong for them to pay for this forgive¬ 
ness when God alone had the true power to pardon 
anyone. Indulgences had been sold for a long time, 
but they had never been used to such an extent 
before. A dominican friar named Tetzel settled 
not far from Wittenberg and attracted Luther’s in¬ 
dignation by his wholesale distribution of papal 
indulgences. He determined to do something 
about this practise, and exclaimed: “ God willing, 
I will beat a hole in his drum! ” Then he pro¬ 
ceeded to do this very thing. 

Luther now took a definite stand and openly de¬ 
nounced the sale of these indulgences in ninety-five 
theses which he nailed to the door of Wittenberg 
Church. This act was his first move towards a 
break with the Roman Catholic Church, and was 
the beginning of the great religious movement 
known as the Reformation, which later swept all 
over Europe, after which many nations separated 
their churches from the Church of Rome. 

Before long these ninety-five theses of Martin 
Luther were spread broadcast throughout the coun- 


60 


Martin Luther 


try. At first the Pope was amused by the dis¬ 
turbance caused by this unknown German, but 
he soon saw that the trouble was serious. He 
commanded Luther to appear in Rome within 
sixty days, and then ordered him to be seized. 
The Emperor Maximilian of Germany and the 
Elector Frederick of Saxony were both wise and 
good men, and they did not wish to see one of 
their subjects condemned without a hearing, so 
they intervened in his favour. The Elector 
Frederick obtained a guarantee of safety for 
Luther, and finally succeeded in getting him a 
hearing at Augsburg, in Germany, instead of at 
Rome. 

Luther refused to retract what he had said, when 
he appeared before the Diet of the Empire, and no 
reconciliation was established. (A Diet is a council 
or congress that meets to decide something.) He 
went back to Wittenberg and continued to teach 
Church history and to write religious publications, 
preaching frequently to many thousands of stu¬ 
dents. His ninety-five theses had set the country 
talking about him, and they became known as his 
Resolutions. He was now thoroughly convinced 
of the justice of his cause and determined to stick 
to his statements and to fight the matter to a finish. 
An envoy of the Pope tried again to bring about a 
reconciliation between him and Rome, but this, too, 
proved unsuccessful. Luther declared that every 
lay member of the Church who held to the Holy 


Founder of Protestant Civilisation 61 

Scriptures was more to be believed than Popes and 
Councils who did not. 

The doctrines of Luther soon began to spread 
throughout Europe, and his name was on every¬ 
one’s lips. He continued to issue treatises against 
the supremacy of the Pope, one of which was called 
The Freedom of Christian Man. In 1519, Charles 
V succeeded Maximilian as Emperor, and although 
he was a good man and a just man, his sympathies 
were not with Luther, and he received little help 
from this quarter. 

You see, Charles V was the grandson of Maxi¬ 
milian of Germany on one side, and the grandson 
of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain on the other, 
which made matters rather complicated for him. 
At the age of sixteen he became King of Spain, and 
three years later, Emperor of Germany as well. 
The Spanish people were devout Catholics, so when 
Charles succeeded his grandfather Maximilian, as 
Emperor of Germany, he was greatly upset by 
the disturbance that Martin Luther had caused 
throughout the country. He ordered his writings 
to be burned, and this gave the Pope renewed 
courage, and he issued a new bull (a papal edict or 
a letter of the Pope containing some decree or de¬ 
cision) against Luther, condemning him to death. 
Luther destroyed the paper and the Pope excom¬ 
municated him and all his followers from the 
Church. 

In 1521 Luther was summoned before a Diet at 


62 Martin Luther 

Worms, a place situated on the river Rhine, in the 
southwestern portion of Germany. All the nobles 
and princes and bishops and archbishops of the 
realm were there, and you may be sure they pre¬ 
sented a very formidable aspect to Martin Luther, 
as he stood there alone before them. The princes 
were anxious to have him receive fair play, how¬ 
ever, and they admired his courage. Some of them 
were even in sympathy with his views. When 
asked to retract what he had said, Luther only an¬ 
swered: “ Prove to me out of the Scriptures that 
I am wrong, and I submit, till then my conscience 
binds me. Here I stand; I cannot do otherwise; 
God help me; Amen.” Not long after this the ban 
of the Empire was pronounced against him, which 
meant that he was deprived of his rights and 
privileges. 

The Elector Frederick continued to be a true 
friend to Martin Luther, and when he found that 
his life was in danger he managed to have him 
kidnapped and carried away to Wartburg Castle, 
in a remote spot near Eisenach, where he remained 
in hiding for some months. While there he was 
treated with every courtesy and kindness and was 
permitted to hunt and ride and to spend his time as 
he wished. It was during this period that Luther 
began his great translation of the Bible. He also 
wrote his first series of sermons. 

The religious reformation that Luther himself 
had started was now well under way, and great 


Founder of Protestant Civilisation 63 

confusion existed everywhere, without the leader 
of the movement to keep things straight. Monks 
left the convents and took up trades, people went 
about smashing the images in the churches, and 
over-zealous men incited people to violence by their 
preaching. Luther realised that something must be 
done, and he escaped from his castle prison and 
appeared openly in Wittenberg, where he preached 
against the riot that raged everywhere, until 
gradually the excitement died down and he re¬ 
turned to Wartburg. There was great political as 
well as religious disturbance on all sides, and it was 
many years before absolute peace and calm were 
again restored to Europe. 

Martin Luther married Katharina von Bora, a 
lady of noble family, who had once been a nun. 
They lived happily together and had several chil¬ 
dren. Two nieces, two nephews, an aunt and sev¬ 
eral university students lived with them in an old 
cloister at Wittenberg, where Luther was a pro¬ 
fessor at the university, so you can see they had 
quite a large family. The great reformer enjoyed 
greater comfort than he had ever had before, and 
he loved his home and his garden and spent many 
happy hours among his flowers. He knew all 
about the different birds and their habits, and 
would often tell the children delightful stories 
about them. 

Luther’s activities in behalf of his new faith did 
not cease. His followers increased daily and his 


64 


Martin Luther 


name was mentioned with more and more respect 
as time went on. Further attempts to reconcile the 
two rival religious parties failed and the breach 
gradually grew wider and wider. The Peace of 
Nuremberg put an end to any violent demonstra¬ 
tions from either party and permitted the great 
Reformation to live on without molestation. 

In 1546 Luther completed his translation of the 
Bible. He wrote many other books, and his last 
work was a commentary on the Book of Genesis, 
which he ended with these words: “ I am weak and 
can do no more; Pray God He may grant me a 
happy and peaceful death.” He died the following 
year, and every respect and honour was paid to 
him. He was a reformer in the highest sense of 
the word. Carlyle said: “ I will call this Luther, a 
true great man; great in intellect, in courage, af¬ 
fection and integrity; one of our most lovable and 
precious men.” This is a great deal to say about 
any man, and shows what a fine character he must 
have been. 

Lutheranism was the original faith established 
by Martin Luther and his associates, and named 
for him. The name Protestant came from the pro¬ 
tests made by the Elector of Saxony and some of 
the other princes of the Empire, against the action 
of a certain council which refused to allow any 
changes in the old religion. 

Here is a verse from one of Luther's hymns, 
which was called The Battle Hymn of the Ref or- 


Founder of Protestant Civilisation 65 


mation , so that you can see what beautiful thoughts 
he had: 

“ A mighty fortress is our God, 

A bulwark never failing; 

Our helper he amid the flood 
Of mortal ills prevailing . 

For still our ancient foe 
Doth seek to work us woe; 

His craft and power are great; 

And armed with cruel hate, 

On earth is not his equal.” 


VIII 

John Wesley 

The Founder of Methodism 

J OHN WESLEY was born more than two 
hundred years after Martin Luther, in the 
year 1703. His life covered almost the 
entire eighteenth century, for he lived until 179L 
During this time four different rulers sat upon the 
throne of England, Queen Anne, and the first, sec¬ 
ond and third Georges. Many great men lived in 
those years,—Addison, Steele, Pope, Burke, Smol¬ 
lett, Romney, and Sir Joshua Reynolds, who 
painted beautiful pictures which I told you all 
about in another little book called Do You Know 
Them? 

England was a very worldly place in the days of 
John Wesley. People gave little thought to church¬ 
going or to religion; even the ministers did not 
spend their hours very wisely, and many of them 
were more concerned with their amusements than 
with the welfare of their flock. Most people 
thought more of pleasure than of anything else in 
the world. 

John Wesley was of Puritan ancestry, and was 
66 


67 


The Founder of Methodism 

born in the little town of Epworth, where his 
father, the Reverend Samuel Wesley, preached his 
weekly sermons. Mr. Wesley was a man of good 
education whom the poet Pope called a “learned 
man.” He wrote a Life of Our Lord Jesus Christ 
in verse, which pleased Queen Mary very much 
indeed. His wife was a woman of fine character 
and the mother of nineteen children. She brought 
up her children with much wisdom and care, 
holding regular weekly talks with them as they 
grew older, which were a great help to them in 
after life. 

The first great event of John Wesley's life was 
the burning of the rectory where his family lived. 
One night when the children were all asleep the 
house caught fire, and in the excitement that fol¬ 
lowed, John was forgotten. A neighbour heard 
him call for help and rescued him just before the 
roof fell in. Not long after this exciting adventure 
this small boy had another unpleasant one, which 
his mother said he bore with much patience and 
forbearance; this was an attack of small-pox. 

There was a ghost which the Wesleys said 
haunted the old rectory, and whom they affection¬ 
ately named “ Old Jeffery.” Old Jeffery must 
have been a very pleasant ghost, for none of the 
children seemed to be in the least afraid of him. 

Mr. Wesley was a stern father and brought up 
his children with great strictness. Many of them 
lived to be a credit to him, especially his second son, 


68 


John Wesley 

John, and Charles, five years younger, who became 
known as the “ poet of Methodism,” and who wrote 
more than six thousand hymns during his lifetime. 
Some of these were: Lo, He Comes with Clouds 
Descending; Hark! the Herald Angels Sing; and 
The Strife is o’er, the Battle Won, all of which 
are sung in church today. Samuel Wesley, the 
oldest brother, became a teacher at Westminster 
School, in London, while a sister, Hetty, also wrote 
verse and distinguished herself as a student of 
Greek. 

When John was still very young he was sent to 
Westminster School in London, and from there to 
the Charterhouse. In those days public school life 
was not nearly so pleasant as it is today, and a 
young boy was forced to endure all sorts of hard¬ 
ships and was often badly knocked about by the 
older ones. John Wesley said that while he was 
at school in London he had little to eat but bread, 
which would not suit most boys very well today. 
He was quiet and modest and obedient as a child, 
and early became familiar with the Holy Scrip¬ 
tures. Perhaps one reason why he lived so long, 
and kept such good health, was because he followed 
his father’s good advice and ran around the school 
green three times every morning. 

After Wesley left the Charterhouse he entered 
Christ Church College, Oxford, where he remained 
for several years. Although some distance from 
home, he was never far from his mother’s help and 


69 


The Founder of Methodism 

guidance and he found great comfort in her letters 
and from the advice which she gave him. His 
father wished him to become a minister, but he 
felt better fitted for a collegiate life and went about 
his studies with great seriousness. But at the age 
of twenty-two he became a deacon and began to 
think more deeply of religion. Two books he read 
at this time made a lasting impression on him: 
Holy Living and Dying, by Jeremy Taylor, and 
Of the Imitation of Christ, by Thomas a Kempis, 
a very good man who lived many years before 
John Wesley. 

After his graduation from Christ Church, Wes¬ 
ley was elected a Fellow of Lincoln College, with 
which place he was connected for more than 
twenty-five years. Lincoln was a college of men 
who were occupied with the science of religion, 
usually called theologians. Wesley was Greek 
lecturer there, which does not mean that he lectured 
in Greek; it was only a name, and what he really 
did was to teach and to give religious instruction to 
some of the undergraduates. 

When Wesley had been at Lincoln College for a 
short time, his father begged him to come home to 
Epworth and be his curate. At last he consented, 
and spent two years at his father’s parish, which 
work he found not very much to his taste. In 1728 
he was ordained a priest, and not long afterwards 
returned to Lincoln at the earnest request of the 
rector of the College. 


70 


John Wesley 

Wesley now joined a small club of young men 
who had agreed to meet regularly to read the Greek 
Testament and the classics during the week, and the 
Holy Scriptures on Sundays. This was for their 
own improvement and to help them to guide and 
instruct the students at the college in a wiser way. 
They also worked among the poor and did good, 
something in the manner of a small Young Men’s 
Christian Association. Charles Wesley and two 
other young men were already members of this 
society and old Mr. Wesley heartily approved of 
this new work of his sons. The little group met 
so regularly that they soon became known as 
“ Methodists.” 

As the years passed by, Mr. Wesley grew more 
and more anxious that his son, John, should suc¬ 
ceed him as Rector of Epworth. John did not feel 
that he was best fitted for the work of a parish 
church and he hated to leave Oxford because he 
felt that he could really do more good there than 
he could at Epworth. He worked very hard in¬ 
deed, and always rose at four or five o’clock in the 
morning, so that he would not waste a single min¬ 
ute of his valuable time. 

When John was thirty-two years old, his father 
died and someone else began to preach at Epworth. 
About this time Wesley joined an expedition that 
was going from England to Georgia, under the 
direction of General Oglethorpe. Wesley imagined 
that he would convert the Indians in this country 


71 


The Founder of Methodism 

and he was sadly disappointed when he found him¬ 
self acting in the capacity of parish priest to the 
new settlers, the very task which he had succeeded 
in avoiding in England. His two years in America 
were not entirely successful, and he was glad to 
come home again at the end of that time. The 
most important thing about Wesley’s excursion 
was his meeting a number of members of the 
Moravian faith, who greatly influenced his own 
religious beliefs and ideas. 

When he was once more in England, Wesley 
began to seriously doubt his own Christianity. He 
was a truly upright and honest man, but he soon 
convinced himself that he had never been a true 
Christian in his life. He decided to learn from 
the Moravians the way to be a better servant of 
Christ. Peter Bohler, a certain German among 
them, had a strong influence upon him. Wesley 
described him as one “ who amazed me more and 
more, by the account he gave of the fruits of 
living faith.” He found that the Moravian faith 
coincided more with his own religious ideas than 
any other, but it did not entirely satisfy him. 
Gradually, little by little, the Methodists separated 
from the Moravians and formed their own separate 
religious society. 

Wesley said of his new faith: “ Our main doc¬ 
trines which include all the rest are these: That of 
repentance, of faith, and of holiness. The first of 
these we account, as it were, the porch of religion; 


72 


John Wesley 

the next the door; the third, religion itself.” His 
great object in life was to do good, and to this end 
he spent his time and unfailing efforts. 

Methodism soon developed into an active organ¬ 
isation and Wesley traveled far and wide through¬ 
out the country preaching and teaching the truths 
of this new religion. His way was not an easy 
one, for he met with great opposition; but nothing 
really worth while is ever accomplished without a 
struggle, and most of the time this great religious 
pioneer fought his way inch by inch and step by 
step, always with undaunted courage and determi¬ 
nation. He was laughed at, stoned, and mocked, 
many, many times, and once he was even ar¬ 
rested. But he fought bravely on, spreading his 
teachings wherever he went, and begging all who 
heard him to believe the great truths that he 
taught them. 

Another minister named Herrick called Wesley 
“The finest illustration of consecrated, unselfish, 
whole-hearted devotion, for fifty solid years of thi 9 
old world’s dark history, that the Church of Christ 
has ever offered to the vision of men, perhaps to 
that of angels.” 

In the eighteenth century men did not travel in 
railroad trains or in automobiles as they do today. 
In those days they went by coach or on horseback, 
and it was far from an easy thing for anyone to 
get from one town to another, especially in bad 
weather. Wesley journeyed on horseback, usually 


73 


The Founder of Methodism 

reading a book on the way. In his diary he said 
that although he rode more than a hundred thou¬ 
sand miles on horseback, only two horses ever 
stumbled because he rode with a slack rein. He 
often rode fifty miles in a single day, sometimes 
preaching in two or three different places in be¬ 
tween times. He traveled by daylight and by 
moonlight, in fair weather and in driving rain; 
once he was even caught in an earthquake. 

John Wesley preached in the market-places, in 
the fields, in prisons, in cathedrals, in poor-houses 
and in palaces, on land and on sea. To all sorts 
and conditions of men he told the truths of his 
religious faith. But there were many other things 
he did besides preaching; he started a labour fac¬ 
tory and the Poor Man’s Bank, as well as the first 
medical dispensary for the poor in London. No 
wonder people remember his name with respect and 
affection now. 

Wesley’s four resolutions with regard to his own 
behaviour were: 

1. To use absolute openness and unreserve with all I 
should converse with. 

2. To labour after continued seriousness, not wil¬ 
lingly indulging myself in any the least levity of 
behaviour or in laughter; no, not for a moment. 

3. To speak no word which does not tend to the glory 
of God; in particular not to talk of worldly things. 
Others may, nay must. But what is that to thee? 
And, 


74 John Wesley 

4. To take no pleasure which does not tend to the 
glory of God; thanking God every moment for all 
I do take, and therefore rejecting every sort and 
degree of it, which I feel I cannot so thank him in 
and for. 

The last years of John Wesley's life did not 
bring him ease and comfort. As old age crept 
upon him he did not slacken his efforts or cease 
his remarkable activities. At seventy we find him 
preaching to thirty thousand people, with the same 
enthusiasm and strength of his earlier days. He 
had married a widow of none too amiable a dis¬ 
position when he was fifty, and, unfortunately, this 
marriage brought him little joy or happiness. He 
found his greatest pleasure in helping others. 

When Wesley was over eighty he visited Hol¬ 
land and preached to the Dutch people. He was 
greatly impressed by their reverence. He said in 
his diary: “ I am as strong at eighty-one as I was 
at twenty-one." At eighty-six he sat for his por¬ 
trait to the great painter, Romney. He had had 
an earlier one painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds. 
Towards the close of his life he said of the Meth¬ 
odists : “ God has at length made our enemies to be 
at peace with us." He died at the age of eighty- 
eight, preaching up to the very end. One of the 
last things he said was: “ The best of all is, God 
is with us." 

These words are from a beautiful hymn that 
John Wesley translated from the German: 


75 


The Founder of Methodism 

“In suffering, be Thy love my peace; 

In weakness, be Thy love my power; 
And when the storms of life shall cease, 
Jesus, in that dark, final hour 
Of death, be Thou my guide and friend, 
That I may love Thee without end” 


IX 

Elizabeth Fry 

A Worker for Prison Reform 

T HE name of Elizabeth Fry may be a new 
one to you. The contents page will tell you 
what she stood for, and I am going to tell 
you something about her great and unselfish work. 

Elizabeth Gurney was born in 1780, and was the 
daughter of John Gurney, a wealthy merchant of 
Norwich, England, and later of Earlham Hall. 
Her mother was a very beautiful woman, one of 
eleven children. Mrs. Gurney was greatly beloved 
by all her family and her death was a cruel blow 
to her husband and children. She left seven 
daughters and four sons behind her; these were, 
Catherine, Rachel, Elizabeth (or Betsy, as she was 
always called), John, Richenda, Hannah, Louisa, 
Priscilla, Samuel, Joseph John, and Daniel. A 
twelfth child had died in infancy. 

Earlham Hall was a large, attractive house with 
a wonderful garden, and the Gurney children had 
great fun romping and playing games all over the 
house and grounds. Betsy was not a strong child, 
but she was full of life and energy and she loved 
76 


Worker for Prison Reform 77 

to dance and sing and ride horseback, and all the 
other things that young people enjoy. She was 
very pretty and could dance and sing unusually 
well. When she was a little girl she was very 
timid and had a great dislike for the dark, but as 
she grew older she also grew more courageous. 

For anyone who loved to play as much as she 
did, Betsy Gurney was strangely serious and 
thoughtful. There were times when she believed 
that she was really a very naughty girl and re¬ 
proved herself for her faults and shortcomings 
when she wrote in her diary. At seventeen she 
wrote: “ Pride and vanity are too much the in¬ 
centives to most of the actions of men.” Doesn’t 
that sound serious for anyone so young? 

When the Gurney girls grew up they became 
known as “ the seven beautiful Gurney sisters,” 
and were very much admired by everyone who saw 
them. They went to a good many parties and 
Earlham Hall was often filled with their young 
friends, who loved to visit the happy Gurney 
family. They were all well content with their 
lives and with the world in general, and the pleas¬ 
ant, care-free days flew by, all too fast. 

When Betsy was about sixteen she heard an 
American minister preach a sermon that impressed 
her so strongly that she decided to give up society 
and devote her entire life to good works. This 
was a great blow to her brothers and sisters, who 
adored their gay little sister and considered her the 


78 


Elizabeth Fry 

life of all their parties. But in spite of all their 
persuasion Betsy remained firm in her decision to 
renounce the pleasures of the world. She laid 
aside all jewelry and pretty clothes and, after a 
time, actually adopted the plain little grey dress 
and white kerchief of the Quakers. 

It was hard for this pretty young girl to give up 
all the things she loved so well, but once she had 
made up her mind, nothing could change her. She 
opened a little school which started with a single 
pupil. This was the beginning of her life of good 
work, and the school grew and grew until there 
were more than eighty scholars who answered the 
roll call. And the little teacher was very happy 
over her success. 

Then one day, just when Betsy had settled down 
to her quiet life and work, something happened that 
upset everything and turned the whole world topsy¬ 
turvy again. Brother John brought a former 
schoolmate home with him one night, a young 
Quaker named Joseph Fry. As soon as his eye fell 
on pretty Betsy this worthy gentleman lost no time 
in falling in love with her. What a hard time she 
had making up her mind whether it would be right 
for her to marry him or not! The decision took 
her several months, but Joseph was a persistent 
person who was not easily discouraged, and he kept 
on asking her to marry him until she simply had 
to consent. 

When Betsy Gurney married Joseph Fry she 


Worker for Prison Reform 79 

moved away from the sunny gardens of Earlham 
Hall and went to live in the dark and stately rooms 
of a London house. She loved her Joseph dearly, 
but everything was so different and so much more 
stiff and formal than it had been at home, that she 
often longed for her own dear family. There were 
so many Fry relations, too! The house was always 
filled with Frys or visiting Quakers and the young 
couple scarcely ever had a meal alone. But young 
Mrs. Fry kept up her courage and interested herself 
in the Society of Friends and, after a time, was 
made one of their ministers. 

When living in London, Mrs. Fry’s attention 
was called to the bad condition of women prisoners 
in that city. She went to the governor herself and 
begged his permission to visit these unfortunate 
creatures and to do what she could for them. Al¬ 
though the governor and everyone else thought her 
idea very foolish, he gave his consent and allowed 
her to go to Newgate Prison. What a sight she 
saw! Half-clothed women and children huddled 
together on the floor in a hopeless state of filth and 
grime which made her feel ill. She brought them 
what clothes she could and talked to them for some 
time. When she left she promised to return 
soon again. 

After a few more visits to the prison, Mrs. Fry 
started a school for the children of the prisoners, 
choosing a girl from among the women to teach 
them. This girl, Mary Connor, had been sent to 


80 


Elizabeth Fry 

jail for stealing a watch. When she found that 
she had real work to do, and that she was trusted, 
she never broke another rule in the prison and was 
finally released on account of her good behaviour! 
Many of the other women formed classes for their 
own instruction and were so pleased to have some¬ 
thing to do and to have someone take any sort of 
interest in them, that their conduct began to show 
a marked improvement. 

Very little had been done towards prison re¬ 
form at that time, and the jails were left in such 
terrible condition that the prisoners frequently 
continued to be wicked because they had nothing 
better to do. People were hanged for very small 
crimes, and all punishments were much more 
severe than they are now. One girl was hanged 
for stealing a few shillings’ worth of cloth, and 
others for equally petty offences. It was a long 
time before these severe laws changed and were 
made more just. 

Mrs. Fry soon extended her work from New¬ 
gate to other prisons. She believed that busy 
people do not often get into mischief, so she tried 
to supply all the idle prisoners with useful work 
for their hands and their minds. In a short time 
there was a great change for the better in many of 
the prisons, which was largely due to her earnest 
efforts in that direction. 

Mrs. Fry was invited to visit the prisons of 
Ireland and Scotland and, later, many others in 


Worker for Prison Reform 81 

Europe. News of her success in this work spread 
abroad and people hastened to ask her advice and 
help. She also instigated improvements in hospital 
conditions and interested herself in the lonely Coast 
Guard stations and sent them many books to read. 
She received an audience with Queen Victoria and 
was invited to dine with kings and queens of other 
nations. Everywhere her name was mentioned 
with great respect and admiration. 

You must not imagine that Elizabeth Fry ne¬ 
glected her home and family in order to do her 
splendid prison reform work. She must have been 
one of those women who can manage a home and a 
career at the same time. At any rate, she had 
eleven children whom she loved devotedly, and who 
were sincerely proud of their mother. 

Elizabeth’s own brothers and sisters grew up and 
separated as time went on. Some married and 
others lived on at the old home, and still others 
quietly slipped away to a better world. Joseph 
John became a minister of the Society of Friends. 
Betsy Gurney Fry never forgot any of them, and 
they were constantly in her thoughts, although she 
could not often be with them. 

Towards the end of her life, Elizabeth Fry and 
her family lost a good deal of money. Mrs. Fry 
did not miss the money for herself, but she grieved 
because she could not still give freely to all those 
whom she longed to help. She continued her activi¬ 
ties until the time of her death, in 1845. She was 


82 


Elizabeth Fry 

survived by a large family of children and grand¬ 
children, who deeply mourned her loss. 

The name of Elizabeth Fry should be remem¬ 
bered by all of us because of her self-sacrificing 
and noble work in behalf of prison reform. She 
was one of the pioneers in this field, and her labours 
have been of great benefit to the whole world. 


X 

General Booth 

The Founder of the Salvation Army 

G eneral william booth was the 

first Commander of the great Salvation 
Army, whose troops are now spread far 
and wide all over the world. In a book of his life 
called The Prophet of the Poor, Thomas Coates 
said: “ What Wesley dreamed, William Booth real¬ 
ised.” These two fine men have often been spoken 
of as similar in character, and you have already 
read about John Wesley in another part of this 
little book, so you know, how hard he tried to help 
people to live better lives. 

William Booth was born in Nottingham, En¬ 
gland, in 1829. His father was a busy tradesman 
who was prosperous for a time, but who later lost 
all his money. His mother was a. sweet and gentle 
character, who exerted a splendid influence over 
her children. 

William was a most independent little boy, and 
from his earliest childhood he showed a great in¬ 
terest in the poor and needy and was always ready 
to help people who were less fortunate than himself. 


83 


84 


General Booth 


When he was very young he began to be interested 
in social reform. He often visited the slums to see 
how the poor children in those districts lived. 

Revival meetings were something that William 
Booth very much liked tO' attend. The work of 
evangelists appealed to him strongly—you know 
an evangelist is a traveling preacher or revivalist, 
a sort of missionary, who goes about from place 
to place trying to awaken people to new faith and 
trust in God. He began preaching in the streets 
when he was very young, in company with some 
other young men who were equally interested in 
good work. They visited the sick and the needy 
and held funeral services for those who had no one 
else to do it for them. 

William Booth dearly loved his home in Notting¬ 
ham and was very happy there. While he was still 
at school his father lost all his money, and the boy 
was obliged to give up his education. After that 
he became more deeply interested in religion than 
ever and he and his friends continued to hold their 
meetings and services. These were often far from 
quiet and orderly, and sometimes stones were 
thrown and people screamed and shouted at what 
was said. But even this did not discourage the 
earnest young reformer. 

When William was eighteen, his father died 
and he went up to London to see if he could find 
some work to do. He had no money and he wanted 
to earn enough to support his widowed mother. 


Founder of the Salvation Army 85 

As he knew no one in the great city and had 
scarcely any experience, the task before him did not 
look very easy. At last he secured a position as a 
clerk and for a long time spent all his leisure hours 
working among the very poor. Finally, he gave 
up his regular work and devoted all his time to 
preaching and working in the slums. He felt that 
that was the place where he could be of the greatest 
service to mankind. 

Because of some of his independent ideas which 
were contrary to the regular doctrines of the 
Methodists, William Booth became separated from 
the church. He loved the evangelical work much 
more than preaching in a parish, and when the 
Methodists wished him to give up this form of 
work, he gave up the ministry instead. 

While working in London, William Booth had 
met Miss Catherine Mumford, another earnest 
helper among the poor. Because of her views 
Miss Mumford also became separated from the 
Church, and they were first drawn together on this 
account. Some time later they were married, and 
Mrs. Booth proved herself a woman of unusual 
character and high ideals and a great help to her 
husband. He spoke of her in these words: “We 
were one in heart, soul and purpose from the time 
of our first meeting.” In later years she became 
known as the “ Mother of the Salvation Army,” 
and thousands learned to love her dearly. 

The Booths had several children, all of whom 


86 


General Booth 

helped to carry on their work among the poor. 
The oldest son, Bramwell, worked side by side with 
his father for many years, and the daughters 
greatly distinguished themselves in connection 
with the Salvation Army. Their son-in-law, Mr. 
Booth-Tucker, wrote a biography of Mrs. Booth, 
which gives a very good idea of her beautiful life 
and work. 

After William Booth definitely gave up his con¬ 
nection with the Methodists, he and his wife trav¬ 
eled about preaching to people. Wherever they 
could find enough people to listen to them they 
preached, in schools, churches, mission halls, and 
once in a circus. Many who heard them repented 
of their sins and began to lead better lives on that 
account. After a time ministers of various 
churches began {0 invite William Booth to come 
and preach to their people, because they realised his 
great power as a preacher and how much he was 
able to help all who heard him. 

When he had been working with the poor in 
different places for some years, Booth settled down 
in the slums of London. He collected all the worst 
gaol-birds, sinners and reprobates he could, and 
allowed them to tell their experiences to others who 
came to his meetings. These people he called the 
“ Hallelujah Band.” He held services in a tent in 
the East-end, and this was the beginning of the 
Salvation Army, although it was not known under 
that name for a long time. For a while they had 


Founder of the Salvation Army 87 

services in an old dance hall, and again in a stable 
or a carpenter-shop, a bowling alley, a theatre, and 
even a beer-house. 

The efforts of William Booth met with much 
opposition, and many were greatly shocked by his 
sensational methods of doing things. These people 
did not understand that strong methods were 
needed to approach the kind of person whom they 
were trying to reform. When they found fault 
with what they called the noisy way that the Booths 
did things, Mrs. Booth said: “ It is impossible to 
have war without noise.” She meant that they 
were soldiers who were actually fighting for 
people's salvation. 

If we only work hard enough, and if we are 
truly trying to help others, some day people find it 
out, and this was what happened at last to William 
Booth. Little by little as the years went by, people 
began to appreciate how much good he was really 
doing for the poor. Those who knew and under¬ 
stood what he was trying to do no longer laughed 
at him, and many important men of the day hon¬ 
estly sang his praises. Heads of factories even 
allowed their men to leave work early to attend his 
meetings, because they found that they became 
better men on account of them. 

The headquarters where the Booths carried on 
their work were known as the “ Christian Mis¬ 
sion.” When someone asked William Booth what 
the Christian Mission was he replied: “ A Volun- 


88 


General Booth 


teer Army.” This suggested another idea to him, 
and from that time he called it the “ Salvation 
Army ” instead. He himself became the “ Gen¬ 
eral,” and eventually put his entire organisation on 
a military basis, with commandants, colonels, 
majors, captains, lieutenants and sergeants, just as 
there are in the regular army. Uniforms were not 
worn at first, but today we are all familiar with the 
simple blue dress of the Salvation Army officers, 
whom we so often see on the streets. Their maga¬ 
zine was called the “ War Cry,” and their Annual 
Conference was known as the “ War Congress.” 

The death of Mrs. Booth was a great blow to 
her family and to all who loved her as the/* Mother 
of the Salvation Army.” She had been the Gen¬ 
eral’s devoted wife for forty years, and he felt her 
loss very keenly. More than thirty thousand people 
attended her Memorial Service. Her last words to 
the public were: 

“ My dear Children and Friends,—I have loved you 
so much, and in God’s strength have helped you a 
little. Now at His call, I am going away from you. 
The War must go on. Self-Denial will prove your 
love to Christ. All must do something. I send you 
my blessing: Fight on, and God be with you. Victory 
comes at last. I will meet you in heaven. 

“ Catherine Booth.” 

The year after his wife’s death General Booth 
published a book called In Darkest England and 


Founder of the Salvation Army 89 

the Way Out. In this he told all about his work 
and what the Salvation Army had done for the 
poor. No one was too bad or too degraded to 
receive help from them, and he told of the Shelters 
where they could always have a roof for the night, 
and the Industrial Workshops and Rescue Homes, 
and all the other things that were provided for 
their good. 

In the last few years the work of the Salvation 
Army has grown tremendously. In 1922 there 
were many thousands of officers working in this 
country alone, and more than two million beds were 
supplied to the poor and needy. Nearly half a mil¬ 
lion Christmas dinners were provided, as well as 
summer outings for the children, free employment 
bureaus, hospitals and industrial homes. In the 
Boer War and the late European War they dis¬ 
tinguished themselves by their work with the 
soldiers. 

Many honours were lavished on General Booth 
in the latter part of his life. He was entertained 
by King Edward and Queen Alexandra of En¬ 
gland, and was given the Freedom of the City of 
London. On this occasion the City Chamberlain 
said: “ General Booth has built up imperishable 
monuments to his fame—rescue homes, shelters, 
workshops, labour and emigration schemes, the 
reform of thousands of poor outcasts, their visible 
transformation into active agents for good. These 
monuments of work well done will outlive decay's 


90 


General Booth 


effacing fingers, will perpetuate his memory long 
after time has pulled to pieces the monument 
erected over his dust, and will leave his name cher¬ 
ished with honour by generations yet unborn as it 
is today by thousands throughout the world.” The 
General died in 1912. 

General Booth explained the religion of the Sal¬ 
vation Army in these few words: “ The religion of 
the Salvation Army is very simple; anyone can 
understand it. It says to a man: ‘ You must wor¬ 
ship God, consecrate yourself to His service and 
do what you can for the benefit of your family and 
friends. You must persevere as the days go by, 
and so should you have a peaceful death-bed and a 
blissful immortality.” This is not a difficult reli¬ 
gion to follow, and it has made many thousands 
into better men and women. 


XI 

Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel 

The Man Who Invented the Kindergarten 


F RIEDRICH FROEBEL was a little Ger¬ 
man boy whose father was a pastor of a 
Lutheran Church at Oberweiss back in 
Thuringia. He was born in 1782, and soon after 
his birth his mother died, and his father married 
again in order to have someone to take care of his 
five motherless little boys. All went well until the 
new mother had children of her own, and then 
Friedrich found that he was left very much to 
himself and to the care of the servants and his 
older brothers, whenever they felt like paying any 
attention to him. 

Little Friedrich Froebel had a very lonely child¬ 
hood, as you can easily imagine. His father taught 
him to read, but he did not learn easily and found 
it a most difficult task. On account of a disagree¬ 
ment with the head of the district school where they 
lived, Herr Froebel was unable to send his children 
there to be educated. Friedrich received rather a 
hit-or-miss education until he was about ten years 
old, studying sometimes at home with his father 
91 


92 Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel 

and sometimes at the girls’ school in the village. 
What he learned was largely hymns and Bible 
texts. He cared very little for books, but he loved 
all the beautiful things out of doors, and would 
have liked to spend all his time in the fields and 
the woods. 

When he was ten years old something most 
agreeable happened to Friedrich. He was sent to 
live with an uncle at Ilm, and he soon found that 
this was a far more cheerful existence than his life 
at home. Uncle Hoffman had lost his own wife 
and child, and he was so lonely that he was very 
happy to have his little nephew with him. He did 
everything in his power to make things pleasant for 
Friedrich, and four years later it was with real 
regret that the boy returned to his own home. 

As Friedrich grew older he still clung to his love 
of out-door things. One of his favourite studies 
was botany, and he was so interested in the flowers 
and trees that he found along the road and in the 
woods that he loved to learn all about them. When 
he was fifteen he was apprenticed to a forester and 
began a work which he enjoyed very much. 

Although at first Friedrich had not cared at all 
for books or studying, little by little as the years 
went by, he became more and more interested in 
these things. His brother was a student of medi¬ 
cine at one of the universities and at last he decided 
to go there himself. His first attempt was not very 
successful and he soon went back to his forestry. 


Who Invented the Kindergarten 93 

He became a surveyor in the service of the Bava¬ 
rian government, and later managed a private es¬ 
tate. All this kept him a good deal in the open, and 
he loved the freedom and continued to take great 
pleasure in the beautiful things of nature. 

It seemed very hard for Friedrich Froebel to 
make up his mind just what he wanted to do with 
his life. When Uncle Hoffman died, he left him 
some money, and this decided him to start out to 
study to become an architect. He went at once to 
Frankfort-on-the-Main, but the head of the school 
there told him to give up the idea because archi¬ 
tecture was not his true vocation. He told him he 
would take him as a teacher in his school. 

After this Friedrich tried university life again in 
order to prepare himself for his new task. This 
time he made better progress- and showed such 
ability in the science of mineralogy that he was 
actually made an assistant in the Museum. In ad¬ 
dition to this he taught arithmetic, drawing, phys¬ 
ical geography and German in the middle classes in 
the Frankfort Model School. But before long he 
became dissatisfied because he believed he was not 
really well fitted for the position of a teacher, and 
that he needed further study himself. After two 
years he retired and became a private tutor for 
some very bad little boys whose parents were quite 
discouraged about them. 

In 1813, Froebel enlisted in the infantry division 
of a prominent army corps in Dresden and spent a 


94 Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel 

short time as a soldier. You can see that by this 
time he had tried a great number of different occu¬ 
pations and must have had a good deal of valuable 
experience at least. In 1815 he finally made up his 
mind to devote his life to education and reform and 
started by taking some of his own brothers* sons to 
educate. He went to Greisheim and opened the 
Universal German Educational Institute. Before 
long the number of pupils increased and the reputa¬ 
tion of the school spread abroad. Froebers wife 
was also much interested in education and reform, 
and was a great help to him in every way. In eight 
years there were fifty-six pupils, and the school was 
an assured success. 

While Froebel was trying out his methods of 
education in his school he also found time to write, 
and he finally published a book called The Educa¬ 
tion of Man. The title was a little deceptive, be¬ 
cause the book really told all about the education 
of a child, as the author himself saw it. His ideas 
of education were quite different from any that 
people had been used to before, and there were 
many who did not approve of them. His schemes 
received much opposition, but he still continued to 
practice them. 

Froebel became more and more interested in the 
education of very young children and, in 1829, he 
opened a school for little ones from three to seven 
years of age. He wished the children in his school 
to be taught as they always had been, but more 


Who Invented the Kindergarten 95 

naturally and with greater freedom. This was the 
beginning of the kindergarten which we all know 
so well today. We should not forget that it was 
Froebel who originated this institution. 

The great educator had a hard time trying to 
think of a name for his infant school. One day as 
he was wandering through the Swiss mountains he 
cried, almost in despair: “ Oh, if I could only think 
of a good name for my youngest bom! ” Sud¬ 
denly an idea came to him and the gloom disap¬ 
peared from his face. “ Eureka! ” he exclaimed in 
delight, “ Kindergarten shall the institution be 
called! ” Perhaps you know that this word is a 
combination of two German words which mean, 
“ children ” and “ garden,” so the whole word 
really means, “ children’s garden.” 

Gradually people began to recognise the impor¬ 
tance of Froebel’s work and, in 1839, the govern¬ 
ment appointed him director of a large orphanage. 
About this time he opened two infant schools at 
Frankfort under the direction of masters whom he 
himself had trained for the positions. 

The ideas of Froebel are very much better ap¬ 
preciated and understood today than they were 
when he was alive, which is often the way with 
people who try to teach the world something new. 
He believed that the education of the child should 
begin at birth and that it should be continued by 
the natural method. He thought that, above every¬ 
thing else, the child should be happy and contented 


96 Friedrich Wilhelm Froebel 

at his work, and he tried to impress people with 
this fact. 

Froebel died in 1852, and was buried in Lieben- 
stein. He was a truly religious man as well as a 
wise and good one, and after his death people 
began to realise how much he had really done for 
the benefit of education. In Thuringia, where he 
was born, his name is carved in large letters on the 
cliffs of a mountain pass. 

The most popular of all Froebel’s works was his 
Mutter und Koselieder, a picture and song book 
for mothers and children, which was published 
seventeen years after his Education of Man. Most 
of his books were written in a rather heavy style 
and were very serious in subject, so they were not 
very popular with the general public. They were 
difficult to read, but the thoughts that were hidden 
behind the long words and ponderous style were 
great and worthy of everyone’s attention. In his 
Mutter und Koselieder, one of the things he says is: 

" If your child's to understand, 

Things that other people do, 

You must let his tiny hand 
Carry out the same things too, 

This is the reason why, 

Never still, 

Baby will 

Imitate whatever* s by” 


XII 

Alexander Graham Bell 

The Inventor of the Telephone 

Y OU have all heard how Samuel Morse in¬ 
vented the telegraph, so now I am going to 
tell you the story of the man who invented 
the wonderful telephone, which we all use today. 

Alexander Graham Bell was born in Scotland, 
in 1847, but his long life in this country made him 
as true an American citizen as anyone who had 
actually been bom here. He was educated at the 
Royal High School in Edinburgh and then in Eon- 
don. His grandfather and father and his two 
brothers had all spent much of their time in the 
study of speech and sound, and for many years had 
taught and written a great deal on these subjects. 
When only a boy, Alexander constructed an arti¬ 
ficial skull of gutta-percha and India rubber that 
would pronounce several words in strange far¬ 
away tones, when blown by hand-bellows. He was 
always constructing and inventing strange things 
of one kind or another. 

At sixteen, young Alexander Bell became an in¬ 
structor of deaf mutes in London and continued to 


97 


98 Alexander Graham Bell 

teach until he was threatened with tuberculosis, the 
disease of which his two brothers had died. In the 
hope of restoring his health the family moved to 
Canada and settled there. Soon after his arrival 
Alexander began to teach a tribe of Mohawk In¬ 
dians a sign language called “ Visible Speech,” 
which his father had invented. 

News spread afar about this remarkable young 
man and his work with the deaf, and he received 
an offer from the Boston Board of Education to 
introduce his system in a school for deaf mutes 
which had just been opened in that city. He ac¬ 
cepted the offer, and his work was so successful 
that he was appointed a professor at Boston Uni¬ 
versity when he was only twenty-four years old, 
at the same age that he opened a school of his own. 

Alexander Bell distinguished himself as a 
teacher, but he soon found that this work left 
him but little time to continue his own inventions, 
which interested him more and more as the time 
went on. At last he decided to give up all but two 
of his pupils and to devote the rest of his time to 
his work. One of these pupils was Mabel Hub¬ 
bard, who had lost her speech and hearing after an 
attack of scarlet fever at the age of three. Dr. 
Bell cured Miss Hubbard completely, and she after¬ 
wards married him. Her father, Gardner Hub¬ 
bard, and a Mr. Saunders largely financed his 
inventions and made his work possible. 

A great many people, before Bell, had tried to 


Who Invented the Telephone 99 

make a telephone, but had failed. He, himself, did 
not believe that he had sufficient electrical knowl¬ 
edge to complete the invention, but when he said 
so to Professor Henry, at Washington, his friend 
said to him: “ Then go and get it! ” Which is 
exactly what Bell proceeded to do. “ If I can make 
a deaf-mute talk, I can make iron talk,” he said, 
when he set to work. For three years he worked in 
Mr. Saunders’ cellar, experimenting in conveying 
speech from one place to another by means of an 
electrically charged wire. For a transmitter he 
used a dead man’s ear, given to him by a friendly 
doctor. Day after day he worked far into the 
night, straining to catch some faint sound of a 
human voice over the wire. 

After long months of ceaseless labour. Dr. Bell 
at last caught the first far-away sound. Encour¬ 
aged by this cheering sign of success he worked 
harder than ever, trying to perfect his invention. 
Then one day, in a room in the house at Court 
Street, Boston, at the other end of the wire, his 
assistant, Watson, heard the faint but distinct 
words: “ Watson, come here, I want you.” It 
seemed too good to be true! Forty years later. 
Dr. Bell again said the same words over the wire, 
to Watson; but this time he was in New York, 
while Watson was in San Francisco, three thousand 
miles away. 

On his twenty-ninth birthday Bell received the 
patent securing his rights as the inventor of the 


100 Alexander Graham Bell 

telephone. For a long time people did not believe 
that this wonderful instrument could really prove 
successful. The London Times at first called it 
“ an American humbug.” Dr. Bell’s patent, known 
as 174465, has been called the most important 
single patent issued in the whole history of inven¬ 
tion. Today there are thirteen million telephones 
in this country, and more telephones in the Ameri¬ 
can Telephone and Telegraph Company Building 
in New York than in the whole of Greece. 

At its first exhibition the telephone was an old 
cigar box and two hundred feet of wire, with a 
magnet from a toy fishpond. This crude specimen 
was soon improved and perfected, however, and it 
was not long before people began to have tele¬ 
phones installed in their homes. Mark Twain was 
among the first to order one for his house in Hart¬ 
ford. His neighbours probably viewed his new 
purchase with admiration and envy, and I am sure 
it afforded him a great deal of pleasure. Three 
years later a conversation took place between 
Boston and Providence over a wire forty miles 
long, and two years after that, between New York 
and Philadelphia, a still greater distance. 

When the Bell Telephone Company was formed 
Dr. Bell refused an offer of ten thousand dollars a 
year to become chief inventor for the company 
because he said he could not invent “to order.” 
Although the telephone was his most important, it 
was not his only invention. With a man named 


Who Invented the Telephone 101 

Tainter, he invented the graphophone. He in¬ 
vented a telephone probe which he used to find 
the bullet that killed President Garfield, and a boat 
which was known as a hydrodrome during the 
World War, and which was called the fastest boat 
in the world. He continued his interest in deaf 
mutes and was the founder of the American Asso¬ 
ciation to Promote the Teaching of Speech to the 
Deaf, to which he gave $250,000. 

Dr. Bell spent his winters in Washington and 
his summers at his beautiful home at Cape Breton, 
in Nova Scotia. There, for thirty-five years, he 
enjoyed the charm and peace of the country, sur¬ 
rounded by his devoted family and friends. Up 
to the summer of his death, much of his time was 
spent in his laboratory, and he never lost interest 
in his work. 

Among other accomplishments, Alexander Gra¬ 
ham Bell was a good musician, and could play the 
piano by ear long before he could read or write. 
He had a fine voice and loved dearly to sing to his 
grandchildren or to have them join him in playing 
singing games. He was devoted to children, and 
all through Cape Breton there was scarcely a child 
who did not know and love him. And he was 
always very fond of animals, and liked to have 
them around him. 

No matter what happened, Dr. Bell was never 
too tired or busy to talk to girls and boys. He 
was always ready to answer their questions and to 


102 Alexander Graham Bell 

explain things to them. No wonder they loved 
him! There were special hours every day when 
he gave dictation, and at this time he never liked 
to be disturbed. But if his grandchildren were 
very, very quiet and never interrupted him even 
once, he would always allow them to come and sit 
in the room and listen. He kept a large candy-jar 
filled with the most delectable sweetmeats, just for 
them, and you may be sure they always knew ex¬ 
actly where to find it. He allowed them to watch 
him make his experiments and explained everything 
to them as carefully as if they had been learned 
scientists themselves. One of his granddaughters 
told me that he was never cross with them. 

Sometimes, when he was not working, Dr. Bell 
would read out loud to the children; one of their 
favourite stories was The Christmas Carol, by 
Dickens. There were ten grandchildren in all, and 
they used to have the most wonderful times in the 
world. Their grandfather was such a splendid 
playfellow that they were always sure to be found 
wherever he was. Every day at dinner he had little 
slips of paper on which he had written some special 
items of interest to tell them about. Mrs. Bell was 
very deaf, and he always insisted that the children 
should never forget this, and that they be sure to 
talk directly to her so that she could understand 
everything that was said at the table. It is so easy 
for us to forget that deaf people cannot hear when 
we speak in our ordinary voice. 


Who Invented the Telephone 103 

Alexander Graham Bell died at Cape Breton in 
the summer of 1922, at the age of seventy-five. At 
sunset on a beautiful August afternoon he was laid 
at rest on the summit of Beinn Bhreagh Mountain, 
in a tomb blasted out of solid Cape Breton rock. 
His coffin was made by his own laboratory staff in 
his own workshops. On the day of the funeral, at 
exactly twenty-five minutes past six in the evening, 
all the telephones of the American Telephone and 
Telegraph Company throughout the entire country 
ceased service for one minute, as a mark of respect 
to the dead inventor. Mrs. Bell never fully recov¬ 
ered from the shock of her husband’s death, and 
died a few months later. She was ever a great 
source of encouragement and a devoted helpmate 
to Dr. Bell. 

Alexander Graham Bell was honoured all over 
the world. The French government decorated him 
with the Legion of Honour and the French 
Academy gave him its fifty-thousand-franc prize. 
The Emperor of Japan bestowed on him the highest 
possible order, the “ Rising Sun.” He received 
honourary degrees from universities in many coun¬ 
tries. When you hear people speak of the “ Bell 
telephone ” now, you will not think they mean the 
“ bell ” that is attached to it, as some people do, 
because you will know something about the real 
Bell, its great inventor. 


XIII 

Noah Webster 

The Man Who Wrote the Dictionary 

W E hear a good deal about the great Ameri¬ 
can statesman, Daniel Webster, but not 
quite so much about Noah Webster, the 
man who wrote the dictionary. This Mr. Webster 
was quite a different character from the well-known 
Daniel, but he is very interesting in his own way, 
and deserves our attention. 

Noah Webster was bom at West Hartford, Con¬ 
necticut, in 1758, the year after the birth of Alex¬ 
ander Hamilton. The Webster family were among 
the first settlers in Connecticut, and their old house 
is still standing. Noah’s grandfather was Daniel 
Webster (not the Daniel we have just been talking 
about, however), and his land covered more than 
eighty acres. Noah’s mother, Mercy, was a de¬ 
scendant of William Bradford, the Plymouth Gov¬ 
ernor. The Websters were a healthy, long-lived 
family, for Noah’s father lived to be ninety-two, 
his two sisters were both over seventy when they 
died, his brothers were over eighty and he, himself, 
was in his eighty-fifth year. 


104 


Who Wrote the Dictionary 105 

Noah worked on his father’s farm and went to 
the village school in Hartford. You would have 
thought this a very strange school, for there were 
few lesson books except a spelling book, a psalter 
and a Bible. And such a spelling book as it was, 
too! It is a wonder that children ever learned to 
spell at all in those days, for the system was most 
complicated and there seemed to be no rhyme or 
reason to the way words were spelled. This wor¬ 
ried Noah Webster very much, even when he was 
only a boy. 

Although he did not find the village school very 
interesting, Noah struggled along with his lessons 
and studied outside with a tutor, to prepare himself 
for Yale College, which he entered in 1774. At 
that time there were about a hundred and fifty 
students in the college, not so many as there are in 
a single class today. When the Revolutionary War 
broke out, most of the students left their lessons 
and joined the troops that were stationed in nearby 
towns. Noah Webster became a private in the 
company of which his father was captain, but he 
finally returned to Yale to complete his education. 

After his graduation Noah Webster began to 
study law and, in the course of time, was admitted 
to the bar. He soon found that he was far more 
interested in literary and educational subjects than 
he was in practicing law, and for some years after 
that he taught school. The books that he used to 
teach from were so poor that, before he had been 


106 


Noah Webster 


teaching very long, he decided to improve them 
himself. One of his first books was called A 
Grammatical Institute of the English Language. 

It used to take children years and years to learn 
to spell correctly, and Mr. Webster’s simplified 
Spelling Book really made things so much easier 
for both teachers and scholars. He was what you 
might call a pioneer in simplified spelling and, 
although there have been many improvements since 
his time, we owe the first radical changes to him. 
He made many words so simple that we have not 
yet adopted his way of spelling them, and perhaps 
we never shall. For instance, he spelled young, 
yung, have, hav, has, haz, heart, hart, and bread, 
bred. These changes would certainly make the 
language easier for foreigners to learn, but too 
many alterations can not be made all at one time, 
and some of the others were far more important 
than these. 

Webster wrote several school-books that were 
full of patriotic speeches that were meant to make 
American school children appreciate the wonderful 
country in which they lived. He did not mean to 
neglect the importance of other countries, but he 
believed our own country should come first, and 
that the best way to inspire patriotism was to read 
about the great deeds and the great speeches of 
famous Americans. None of his other lesson books 
had the success of his Spelling Book, which was 
sold in great quantities all over the United States. 


Who Wrote the Dictionary 107 

Sometimes as many as a million copies a year were 
sold, and for a long time the author supported 
his family on the money he received from this 
early work. 

Sketches of American Policy was another book 
by Noah Webster. He also edited the Journal of 
Governor Winthrop—one of our early American 
settlers and the first governor of Massachusetts. 
Besides writing these books, he practiced law a 
little, and taught school for a year in Philadelphia. 
He went to the Quaker city at the invitation of 
his friend, Benjamin Franklin, who was also very 
much interested in spelling reform. Webster re¬ 
vised the Bible according to his own ideas, edited a 
newspaper, served on the state legislature, gave 
public lectures on the English language, became a 
judge and was one of the founders of Amherst 
College. 

It was not for any of these things, however, for 
which we remember Noah Webster. He was a 
middle-aged man before he even started on the 
great work which made him famous all over the 
world. In 1806 he published his first dictionary of 
the English language, which contained five thou¬ 
sand more words than the best English dictionary. 
This was almost a reference book as well, for it 
contained maps, tables of weights and measures, 
and much other valuable information. 

When this tremendous work was finished, “ Dr.” 
Webster, as he was now called, started to make a 


108 


Noah Webster 


much larger and more complete dictionary, an un¬ 
dertaking which took almost twenty years of his 
life. Many people laughed at this bold American 
who dared to attempt a task which they thought 
had been done well enough years before, by the 
great English scholar, Dr. Samuel Johnson. They 
ridiculed him in the newspapers and made all 
manner of fun of him, but Dr. Webster paid no 
attention to them and kept on working at his self- 
appointed task. 

The question of money was a very serious one 
for Noah Webster, while he was busily preparing 
his dictionary. He had no spare time to go out 
and earn his living, and he had a wife and several 
children to support. Almost all of his income came 
from the Spelling Book f and this was not nearly 
enough for them to live on, in any degree of com¬ 
fort. In order to reduce their expenses as much as 
possible, they sold their home in New Haven and 
went to live in the little town of Amherst, 
Massachusetts. 

Day and night for twenty years, Noah Webster 
worked on his dictionary. During all this time he 
received no remuneration at all. He had great 
difficulty in finding the proper reference books in 
this country, for in the early nineteenth century 
books of that kind were not so plentiful as they are 
today. At last, he left his family behind, and sailed 
abroad in search of his material. For a year he 
worked at Cambridge University in England. In 


Who Wrote the Dictionary 109 

1828, the great Dictionary was completed and ap¬ 
peared in two large volumes which sold for twenty 
dollars. The first revision was finished in 1840-41, 
and Dr. Webster was at work on the second when 
he died, a year later. 

Noah Webster left a handsomely bound copy of 
his Bible to each of his grandchildren, because he 
considered this his most important work. He did 
not know that it was his Dictionary which would 
make his name a national byword. And now, if 
anyone should happen to speak about Webster's 
Dictionary, you will know at once that he does not 
mean Daniel Webster, whom I have told you about 
in another book, called Do You Know Them? 
Noah read Daniel’s famous speeches with pleasure, 
and Daniel studied from Noah’s Spelling Book, and 
each of them highly respected the other, but they 
were really two very different men. 


XIV 

Hans Christian Andersen 

The Man Who Wrote the Fairy Tales 

T HERE are very few children who have 
not read about “The Tin Soldier,” or 
“ The Mermaid,” or “ The Nightingale,” 
or “Great Claus and Little Claus,” and a good 
many other delightful fairy tales by Hans An¬ 
dersen, who is sometimes spoken of as the 
“ Children’s Poet.” This does not mean that he 
actually wrote in verse, because you know that 
lots of things that are written in prose are very 
poetical. 

Hans Christian Andersen was born at Odense, 
one of the largest cities in Denmark, in 1805. In 
that same year the great statesman, Benjamin Dis¬ 
raeli, was born in England, in quite different cir¬ 
cumstances from the Danish author. Andersen 
was the son of a poor shoemaker, who had always 
wanted a good education but whose parents had 
thought the idea foolish and had not made the 
effort to give it to him. Hans was born when his 
father was only twenty-two years old, and although 
they lived in extreme poverty, and the whole family 
110 


Who Wrote the Fairy Tales 111 

slept in one room, they were really very happy and 
had lots of good times together. 

When Mr. Andersen had any time to spare, he 
made Hans the most fascinating toys. He was 
very clever at doing this, which was nice for his 
little son because, of course, they were far too poor 
to buy anything that they did not actually need, and 
were even obliged to do without many of the real 
necessities of life. Mrs. Andersen worked just as 
hard as she could, but it was a great struggle for 
them to get along at all. 

Hans went to school for a time and he read all 
the books he could find. Two of his favourites 
were the Arabian Nights and the Fables of La 
Fontaine. When he was about eight years old he 
wrote his first poem, and after that he wrote other, 
little things from time to time. His mother and 
father and grandmother were all very proud of him 
and, like most families, they felt sure that their 
Hans had a great future before him. 

When Hans was eleven his father died, and he 
was taken out of school and put to work in a fac¬ 
tory. He hated the work and was glad to give it 
up to go to read to a widow and a relation of hers. 
His mother soon married another cobbler, who had 
almost as little money as her first husband. She 
was unable to do very much for her boy and in a 
few years her second husband died and she found 
herself worse off than before. 

Hans had always loved the theatre, and as soon 


112 Hans Christian Andersen 

as he was able he built himself a toy theatre and 
read all the plays he could get his hands on. At 
last, with just seven dollars in his pocket, he set 
out for Copenhagen, where he made several at¬ 
tempts to go on the stage. He was so painfully 
thin that his appearance was a good deal against 
his success, but he was not easily discouraged. 
His worst handicap was his extremely limited edu¬ 
cation, and he soon found that he required a good 
deal more knowledge to become an actor than he 
possessed. Sadly, he abandoned all hope of a the¬ 
atrical career for the present, and took the first 
honest job that he could find. 

The work of a joiner was not very agreeable to 
Hans, but he was almost in despair when he lost 
this work. It was far from easy for a young boy 
with no friends and no education, to make his way 
in a big city. It was in the midst of his trouble 
that the idea of becoming a great singer came to 
him. He had an excellent voice and friends had 
often urged him to have it cultivated. After sev¬ 
eral attempts he managed to sing before one of the 
best teachers in Copenhagen, who was so delighted 
with his voice that he at once set him to work 
studying for a musical career. Hans was de¬ 
lighted, and it seemed that at last all would surely 
be well with him. Then a terrible calamity befell 
him. Just when everything looked most promising, 
he completely lost his voice and was forced to give 
up his new hope of becoming a singer. 


Who Wrote the Fairy Tales 113 

Andersen was now in worse straits than ever 
before. He tried his hand at writing tragedies, but 
with little success, for no one seemed at all inter¬ 
ested in them. He struggled feebly along until a 
kind man of great influence in Denmark saw that 
the boy had real talent and that a good education 
would help him to overcome the difficulties that 
surrounded him. Jonas Collin himself went to 
King Frederick VI and begged him to allow Hans 
Andersen to have free instruction at one of the 
advanced schools in Denmark. The king agreed to 
the suggestion and the boy was at last able to re¬ 
ceive an education, and later to attend college. 

Andersen disliked school very much, but all the 
same he stuck to it year in and year out until he 
had learned a great deal about many things. He 
was decidedly backward and slow in his lessons 
and did not love to study as some children do. 
Besides this, he was sensitive and he felt very 
badly when the head-master made fun of his poetry 
and other writings. Nevertheless, about a year 
after he entered college he published a small book 
at his own expense, which met with remarkable 
success. 

Andersen’s Picture Book Without Pictures cre¬ 
ated quite a sensation. A Poet's Bazaar appeared 
about the same time, and his Dying Child became 
so popular that it was soon translated into several 
different tongues, including the language of Green¬ 
land. In addition to these books he had a play 


114 Hans Christian Andersen 

produced at the Royal Theatre in Copenhagen and 
a book of poems dedicated to the king, which was 
entitled the Twelve Months of the Year. His 
Picture Book Without Pictures shows his best 
talent. 

Andersen himself really preferred writing books 
for older people and very much questioned the suc¬ 
cess of his books for children. I am sure he would 
be greatly surprised today if he could know that 
his Fairy Tales are more read than all his other 
books put together. And these wonderful tales 
seem to grow more popular all the time. 

The success of the last years of Andersen's life 
somewhat made up for his early bitter struggles. 
He was given a pension by the king and was re¬ 
ceived with honour in all the countries he visited. 
In England he met and became the good friend of 
Charles Dickens, who went to the pier to bid him 
“ bon voyage ” after one of his visits to that coun¬ 
try. The first thing he wrote on his return to 
Denmark was a Christmas Greeting to My English 
Friends, which was dedicated to Dickens. 

Andersen lived through the reign of four Danish 
monarchs, but King Christian VIII was the one he 
liked the best. He dined frequently with the king 
and queen and was always an honoured guest at the 
royal table. Sometimes he would read aloud to 
them from some of his own books, which they ad¬ 
mired very much indeed. He received many deco¬ 
rations from different kings, and as years passed 


Who Wrote the Fairy Tales 115 

by he found that he was no longer unknown and 
unhappy, but famous and appreciated all over the 
world. When he was sixty-four he was given a 
literary “Jubilee,” and in 1867 he was made an 
honourary citizen of his native town. There is a 
monument of him in Odense today. 

In appearance Andersen was limp and ungainly, 
being extremely tall and thin. His nose was large 
and his hands and feet were enormous. He was 
not handsome, but on the whole he was rather 
proud of his appearance and took great pleasure in 
clothes and personal adornment. He was a shrewd, 
keen observer, and little escaped his sharp eyes. 
He loved the theatre and always went as often as 
possible. He was a religious man and kind and 
good to everyone. He was very much afraid of the 
sea and hated any sort of a voyage. 

Andersen never married, but he led an active and 
busy life and had little time to be lonely. He had 
planned to build a comfortable home for his old 
age, but did not live to see it completed. After a 
brief illness, he died in Copenhagen, in 1875. His 
books, translated into English, fill ten volumes. 
In 1900 a centennary edition of his Tcdes appeared 
simultaneously in six different languages, under the 
patronage of the Danish government. This shows 
that Denmark was truly proud of her famous 
countryman and that she wished to pay him the 
highest possible tribute in her power. 


XV 

Anne Bradstreet 

The First Woman Poet in America 

Y OU have probably never heard of such a 
person as Anne Bradstreet, the first woman 
poet in this country. I am not telling you 
about her because she was such a wonderful maker 
of verse, but really because she had the courage and 
strength to do such a thing at all, at a time when 
women did little in any line outside of their house¬ 
hold duties. You see, Mrs. Bradstreet lived in the 
long ago pioneer days of America, when people had 
all they could possibly do to fight against the hard¬ 
ships and difficulties that confronted them in set¬ 
tling and making homes for themselves and their 
families in the new land. 

Anne Dudley Bradstreet was bom in North¬ 
ampton, England, more than three hundred years 
ago. She was a gentlewoman by birth, the 
daughter of Thomas Dudley, steward of the Earl 
of Lincolnshire, and afterwards Governor of Mas¬ 
sachusetts. When she was sixteen Anne married 
Simon Bradstreet, son of a neighbouring minister 
and a graduate of Emmanuel College, Cambridge, 
116 


America’s First Woman Poet 117 

the same college which John Harvard attended. 
After his wife’s death Simon Bradstreet became 
Governor of Massachusetts and is sometimes 
spoken of as the “ Nestor of New England.” 

In 1630, when Anne Bradstreet was eighteen, 
she and her husband joined the party of English 
Puritans who came to this country on the good ship 
“ Arbella.” You remember Governor Winthrop 
and the Lady Arbella, sister of the Earl of Lincoln, 
Thomas Dudley, and all the other brave pioneers 
who came over on the same boat, and what a trying 
passage they had, too? For weeks and weeks they 
tossed about on the sea and when they finally 
reached Salem they were so thankful to be on dry 
land again that they hardly knew what to do. 

The Bradstreets and many of the other passen¬ 
gers went to Charlestown soon after their arrival, 
but before long moved over to Boston. Their 
first winter in New England was full of such suf¬ 
fering and hardship that many of them did not 
survive it. Simon Bradstreet did not stay very 
long in Boston, but moved to Cambridge, where he 
built a house on the site of the University book¬ 
store. Before he had been five years in this country 
he again picked up his goods and chattels and de¬ 
posited himself and his family in the good town of 
Ipswich, formerly known as Agawam. But alas, 
Simon was not yet satisfied, or else his youthful 
days were filled with a wander-lust spirit, for once 
more he changed his place of residence, this time 


118 


Anne Bradstreet 


settling at Andover, where he built himself another 
house. At any rate, he had the satisfaction of 
knowing that he was one of the first settlers in all 
the towns where he had stayed for a short time. 

The constant upheaval of herself and her posses¬ 
sions, combined with the roughness and hardships 
that people were forced to endure in those early 
days, told upon the delicate constitution of Anne 
Bradstreet, who had been little used to such a life. 
She was a devoted wife and mother, however, and 
the Bradstreets had a happy family of eight chil¬ 
dren to comfort their later years. In one of her 
poems Mrs. Bradstreet speaks of her devotion to 
her husband in these words: 

“ If ever two were one, then surely we; 

If ever man were loved by wife, then thee; 

If ever wife was happy in a man, 

Compare with me ye women if you can.” 

Mrs. Bradstreet’s poems were first published 
without her knowledge by her brother-in-law, who 
was the first minister of the church of Andover. 
They were received with great enthusiasm by the 
literary men of the time, who were greatly im¬ 
pressed by the ability and talent of the new writer 
from Massachusetts. The verse of that time was 
quite different from the verse of today. I am 
afraid we would find a good many of Anne Brad- 
streets’s poems very stiff and formal and hardly to 
our taste. But many of her thoughts were beauti- 


America’s First Woman Poet 119 

iul and showed a good deal of her own beauty of 
character. In one poem she speaks of herself thus: 

“A pilgrim I on earth, perplexed, 

With sins, with cares and sorrows vexed, 

Oh how I long to he at rest 
And soar on high among the blest!” 

In the twentieth century we are not at all sur¬ 
prised to find that we live next door to a writer or 
an actor or perhaps a great musician. But in the 
seventeenth century it was a great shock to the 
neighbours of Anne Bradstreet to discover that she 
was a poet as well as a mother and wife. They 
were not accustomed to seeing women occupied in 
writing verses and they could not believe that that 
was a good way for anyone to spend her spare time. 
Some of them even hinted that if Mrs. Bradstreet 
spent more time with her needle and less with her 
pen, she would be much more sensible. But Anne 
Bradstreet could not have agreed with them for, in 
spite of their talk, she persisted with her writ¬ 
ing, although she never neglected her family by 
doing so. 

The Bradstreets were in comfortable circum¬ 
stances and they had handsomer furniture and 
household goods than most people in Andover. 
Mrs. Simon Bradstreet took great pride in their 
beautiful things and she even kept up a cor¬ 
respondence with some of the nobility at home in 
England. In 1661 , her husband went to England 


120 


Anne Bradstreet 


on a particular mission to King Charles II, and on 
his return brought his family many handsome pres¬ 
ents from abroad. 

In those days men wore bright-coloured coats 
and knee breeches of a different hue. They car¬ 
ried silk handkerchiefs, wore gay neckties and 
costly and elaborate waistcoats. As a matter of 
fact, their apparel was quite as brilliant and at¬ 
tractive as that of the ladies, and at a ball they 
really made a very festive appearance indeed. Mr. 
Bradstreet liked to wear nice clothes and always 
looked very well. 

Simon Bradstreet was usually spoken of as the 
“ worshipful Mr. Simon Bradstreet/’ which shows 
how much people must have admired him. He was 
consulted in all the important affairs of the town 
of Andover, and few plans were made without first 
asking his advice. It was he who built the first 
mill on the Cochecheviche River, and he started 
many other worthy enterprises as well. 

In 1666 a terrible calamity befell the Bradstreet 
family. Their beloved home burned to the ground, 
and with it all the cherished possessions which no 
money could ever replace. The following year Mr. 
Bradstreet built a new house for his family, a mas¬ 
sive building made of heavy timbers, and brick- 
lined walls, and an enormous chimney running up 
to the top of the house. He purchased new furni¬ 
ture and books and clothing, but Mrs. Bradstreet 
never ceased to regret the dear old heirlooms that 


America’s First Woman Poet 121 

were lost in the fire, chiefly the fine little library of 
eight hundred books that they had all loved so well. 
In the seventeenth century books were very scarce 
in this country. Most of them were brought all the 
way from England, and it was not an easy thing to 
purchase new volumes. Of course there were no 
lending libraries as there are today, and if anyone 
wanted a book at all he had to either borrow it 
or buy it. 

The Bradstreets enjoyed forty years of happy 
married life together. Anne died in 1672, and 
Simon lived for twenty-one years after her death, 
to the ripe old age of ninety-four. Four years 
after the burial of Anne he married a niece of Gov-* 
emor Winthrop, and moved to Salem, where he 
spent his remaining years. His tomb may still be 
seen in that city. He was the last Governor of 
Massachusetts before it became a royal province. 

Simon Bradstreet’s son, Colonel Dudley Brad- 
street, lived on in the old Bradstreet house in 
Andover until his own death. Two other sons 
went to Harvard College and one became a physi¬ 
cian and another the first master of Andover Gram¬ 
mar School. His daughters all married well and 
settled down not far from home. No one knows 
exactly where Anne Bradstreet was buried, but it is 
believed in the old graveyard of Andover. Her de¬ 
scendants include many famous men, among them 
William Ellery Channing, Richard Henry Dana, 
Oliver Wendell Holmes, and Wendell Phillips. 


XVI 

Charlotte Bronte 

A Well Known English Novelist 
HARLOTTE BRONTE, like so many other 



English writers, was the daughter of a 


clergyman. Her mother was a native of 
Penzance and had always been frail and delicate. 
Her father, the Reverend Patrick Bronte, was an 
Irishman of County Down, who had been educated 
at Cambridge University. He was a man of strong 
character and some literary talent. Charlotte was 
born in 1816, at Thornton, England. When her 
mother died, a few years later, the family moved to 
Haworth, a Yorkshire village of about five thou¬ 
sand inhabitants, where they settled permanently. 

Patrick Bronte had six children, five daughters 
and one son, and at an early age they all showed 
remarkable cleverness and were treated by their 
father as intellectual equals. He talked over the 
public affairs of the day with them and expected 
them to pay attention to what he said and to re¬ 
member it afterwards. Maria, the oldest child, 
read the newspaper aloud at breakfast and they 
all discussed the news together. Miss Branwell, 


122 


English Novelist 123 

Mr. Bronte’s sister-in-law, came to live with them 
and to assist in the bringing up of the motherless 
children. 

Haworth was a very lonely spot, and the Bronte 
sisters had very little intercourse with neighbours 
of any kind. As time went on, the family grew to 
depend largely upon themselves for entertainment 
and companionship. They often amused them¬ 
selves by composing and acting clever little plays 
which greatly pleased their father. Charlotte’s 
favourite hero was the Duke of Wellington, and 
she frequently had him take a leading part in the 
plays. Another great favourite of the little girl 
was Sir Walter Scott, whose delightful poetry and 
romances never failed to give her pleasure. When 
Charlotte was eleven or twelve years old she told 
her father that the best book in the world was the 
Bible, and that the next best was the “ book of 
nature ”—this really meant just everything out 
doors and not a book at all. 

None of the Bronte children was very strong 
physically. They inherited their mother’s deli¬ 
cate constitution and their father’s mental ability. 
When Charlotte was only eight years old, she and 
three of her sisters were sent to a boarding school 
for clergymen’s daughters at Cowan Bridge. A 
low fever broke out in the school and the two oldest 
girls, Maria and Elizabeth, became seriously ill and 
were taken home only to die. Charlotte told all 
about this horrid school in her famous book Jane 


124 


Charlotte Bronte 


Eyre. Emily and Charlotte then returned to Ha¬ 
worth and for some time studied with their aunt. 
When they were very small, Charlotte, Emily, 
Anne, and their brother, Branwell, all began to 
write. In a few years Charlotte composed thirty or 
forty tales as well as a large number of poems. She 
was a naturally quiet and reserved young girl and 
found great pleasure and comfort in her writing. 

Charlotte went to another boarding school near 
Leeds, and this proved to be a more pleasant ex¬ 
perience. Later she became a teacher at the same 
place. In 1842 she and Emily went to Brussels to 
improve their knowledge of foreign languages and 
to better prepare themselves for teaching. To a 
great extent the Bronte sisters were really self 
educated. 

From the time of her return from Brussels, 
Charlotte’s trials began anew. First, her aunt died; 
then her father’s sight became impaired and her 
brother, who had always been a weak and bad 
character, began to bring continued trouble to the 
family by his wicked and unprincipled actions. 
The three sisters took up literature in earnest and, 
in 1846, published a volume of verses at their own 
expense, under the names of Currer, Ellis and 
Acton Bell. Next, Charlotte wrote The Professor, 
and afterwards Jane Eyre, which took the public by 
storm as soon as it appeared. People tried to guess 
who had written this masterpiece, and many sup¬ 
posed it could only have been a man. When Char- 


English Novelist 125 

lotte at last confessed her authorship of the book, 
everyone was completely amazed. 

Soon after the publication of this novel, more 
sorrow came to Charlotte, and her life became even 
more desolate and forlorn than it had been before. 
Her brother, Branwell, died and was soon followed 
by her beloved sisters, Emily and Anne. During 
all this sad period of her life, Charlotte was busy 
writing her story, Shirley , which is the most cheer¬ 
ful of all her books. This story is really written 
about her sister, Emily, and describes many of the 
scenes of pastoral and moorland Yorkshire that she 
knew so well. Perhaps in writing this tale Char¬ 
lotte found some comfort and relief for her loneli¬ 
ness and suffering. Her last novel was named 
Villette; it was considered the most perfect by the 
critics, and was received with great enthusiasm by 
the public. 

The life of Charlotte Bronte is one of the sad¬ 
dest and most pathetic in the whole range of litera¬ 
ture. Having her family taken from her, one by 
one, and having few intimate friends and no 
kindly neighbours to bring her comfort, she was 
left to depend solely upon her work for recre¬ 
ation and consolation. There, in the dismal little 
village of Haworth, she spent her lonely and cheer¬ 
less existence. 

In her last years Miss Bronte found a little pleas¬ 
ure in her acquaintance with Thackeray, Mrs. Gas- 
kell, and other noted writers. Her closing days 


126 Charlotte Bronte 

were brightened by her marriage to her father’s 
curate, Rev. A. B. Nicholls, who had sincerely loved 
her for a great many years. It was her sad mis¬ 
fortune to be unhappy the greater part of her life, 
but through all her sorrows her fortitude remained 
unshaken. 

Most of Miss Bronte’s characters were drawn 
directly from life, and many of her friends recog¬ 
nised themselves in her pages. Her sisters, Emily 
and Anne, both left some literary work behind 
them. Emily’s Wuthering Heights is a book of 
great power and distinction, and her poems also 
show unusual ability. Anne’s writings had not the 
same fine quality as that of her two sisters, and her 
two novels are not so well known. The stories of 
Charlotte, or Currer Bell, as she at first called her¬ 
self, were the most important. They had a rare 
vitality and power and are still widely read today, 
although they were written more than three- 
quarters of a century ago. 

Mrs. Gaskell, the well known author of the de¬ 
lightful English story, Cranford, has written a 
very interesting “ Eife ” of her friend, Charlotte 
Bronte. This biography tells in detail all about the 
hopes and disappointments of her life, and I am 
sure you would enjoy reading it. The lives of the 
Bronte sisters have been the subject of many books 
and articles in the last century. 


XVII 

Eugene Field 

A Poet Whom Children Love 

1 AM sure you all know the Rock-arby Lady 
from Hush-a-by Street , and the Gingham Dog 
and the Calico Cat , and Wynken, Blynken and 
Nod, and lots of the other delightful characters in 
Eugene Field’s beautiful poems for children. Mr. 
Field liked children very much indeed, and he was 
especially fond of those who loved fairy tales and 
Santa Claus and things like that. He loved Ander¬ 
sen’s Fairy Tales himself, even when he was a 
grown man. 

Eugene Field was bom in St. Louis in 1850, the 
same year that Lord Kitchener was born in En¬ 
gland. His mother died when he was a small boy 
and he and his brother, Roswell, were sent to New 
England to be brought up by a cousin. The Field 
family were of genuine Puritan stock, and Eu¬ 
gene’s grandmother was a devout Congregation- 
alist. This religious old lady was most anxious 
that her little grandson should grow up to be a 
minister, and with this end in view she set him 
to work, writing sermons, at the age of ten. 
127 


128 


Eugene Field 

These the good woman purchased from him for 
ten cents apiece, to encourage the boy in his reli¬ 
gious career. 

When Eugene was finally prepared for college 
he entered Williams for his freshman year. The 
next year he went to Knox College, in Illinois, and 
the third year to Missouri University. Instead of 
taking his fourth year at another college he went 
abroad and travelled for several months. On his 
return he started work as a reporter on the St. 
Louis Journal and continued to hold various posi¬ 
tions on different newspapers for ten years. 

In 1883 Eugene Field began to work on the 
Chicago Morning News, which later became the 
Record, and remained with this paper until his 
death, twelve years later. His clever daily column. 
Sharps and Flats, soon became a popular feature of 
the newspaper and attracted a good deal of atten¬ 
tion all over the country. It was a collection of 
brief humourous items, tiny stories and bits of 
verse that were filled with a rare and delightful 
humour. 

Mr. Field had a small cubby-hole of an office 
just off the main editorial room of the Morning 
News. He would saunter in here in the morning, 
remove his collar and shoes, and often his coat, roll 
up his trousers and proceed to make himself very 
comfortable by placing his feet on top of his desk. 
Over his desk was a large sheet of tin, and when 
the noise in the outer office became too loud for his 


Poet Whom Children Love 129 

taste he would hammer on this as a delicate hint 
that he would enjoy a little more quiet. In the 
same way he would call one of the office boys to 
his desk. He kept all sorts of queer tools about 
his office, because he greatly liked to shock and sur¬ 
prise his visitors and let them think that he was 
really quite a peculiar character. 

Field was over six feet tall and stooped slightly. 
He was careless in his dress and was not very par¬ 
ticular or vain about his personal appearance. At 
college he smoked an old corn-cob pipe and, al¬ 
though he gave up this habit in later life, he was 
always an inveterate smoker, and the habit affected 
his health very badly. He was a well known figure 
in Chicago, and there was scarcely a bookshop in 
the city where he was not a frequent visitor. He 
loved books and reading and was particularly fond 
of reading in bed. He was generous, honest, and 
sincere and hated sham and hypocrisy. He had a 
sunny, cheerful disposition and loved nothing better 
than to play jokes on people. His jokes were never 
mean, however, for he hated to hurt anyone or 
anything. Everyone loved him. 

Once when Eugene Field was in Denver he heard 
that Oscar Wilde, the famous English writer, was 
expected in that city on the same day. Now, Mr. 
Wilde was well known as an eccentric and remark¬ 
able looking man, who dressed in a peculiar way 
and was often seen walking through the streets 
carrying a lily in his hand. The idea of playing a 


130 Eugene Field 

good joke on everyone appealed to Mr. Field’s 
sense of humour, so he dressed himself to look as 
much like the English author as possible and drove 
about Denver with a large sunflower clasped in his 
hand. Everyone turned out to see him, and when 
the real Oscar Wilde appeared the following day, 
they were all completely flabbergasted at the joke 
on themselves. 

Another time, at an English dinner, Field amazed 
some of the noted people there by his description of 
the “ wild and woolly west.” An anxious lady who 
had never been to America asked him if it were 
really such a terrible place, and he quickly assured 
her it was much worse than she had imagined, and 
described the wild animals and other horrors that 
were unknown in England. He said that when he 
himself was first “ caught ” he was up in a tree. 
How much they believed of what he said I do not 
know, but I am sure he helped to make the dinner 
a lively one. 

Eugene Field could enjoy a joke on himself just 
as much as he could one on someone else. He was 
always ready to laugh with other people when some¬ 
thing funny happened to him. Once he put on a 
new white flannel suit and started out with some 
friends to visit the Chicago Exposition. In an idle 
moment he sat on a piece of fly paper, which clung 
to him so tightly that it was some time before he 
could be separated from it. When it was finally 
removed his coat stuck to his trousers and his trous- 


Poet Whom Children Love 131 

ers to him, and he did not feel any too comfortable 
the rest of the afternoon. The next day he received 
a letter from one of his friends addressed to “ Mr. 
Eugene Fly-Paper Field,” which amused him very 
much indeed. 

As time went on and Eugene Field became more 
and more popular he began to receive a great num¬ 
ber of letters from admiring readers who begged 
him to tell them something about himself. To 
please them and to amuse himself he concocted a 
half-serious and half-humourous pamphlet about 
his life, which he mailed to them all. I am quite 
sure that when they finished reading it they knew 
less about the author than before they began. One 
of the things he told them was that he loved pie and 
tobacco, which was really the truth, for they say 
that one of his favourite dishes was a piece of 
mince pie with melted cheese on top! 

Children always liked to visit Eugene Field be¬ 
cause, like Lewis Carroll, he kept a lot of wonderful 
mechanical toys and things to show them. He also 
had a fine collection of bells to which they loved to 
listen. He had several children of his own, and 
instead of calling them by their right names, 
which were Eugene, Frederick, Roswell, Francis, 
Mary, and Ruth, he addressed them as “ Pinny,” 
“ Daisy,” “ Pody,” “ Trotty,” and “Sister Girl”, 
He loved pets of all kinds, too. When he was a. 
little boy himself he even named the chickens and 
taught them to answer to their names, which were 


132 Eugene Field 

“ Minnikin ” and “ Finnikin,” and strange sound¬ 
ing things like that. 

Eugene Field wrote the neatest hand imaginable, 
and his manuscripts were always a great pride to 
him and a great comfort to the printers, who often 
received many things that they could not even read. 
He took the greatest pains to keep all his work neat 
and legible. He loved to make queer little sketches 
to illustrate his letters to his friends and in books 
which he was especially autographing for people. 
Do you remember how Lewis Carroll used to love 
to draw, too ? 

Eugene Field had a very good voice for singing 
as well as reading. His readings from his own 
works were a delight to all those who heard him. 
His last public appearance, two or three weeks 
before he died, was at Glencoe, a suburb of Chi¬ 
cago, and was for the benefit of a destitute woman 
whom he did not even know. 

Mr. Field died in 1895, the same year as the 
great French scientist, Louis Pasteur. His death 
was deeply mourned all over the country, for his 
friends were many and his beautiful writings had 
endeared him to thousands of people who had never 
known him personally. He was buried with a 
white rose in his hand, which had been sent to him 
by a little girl who loved his poems. 

In 1922 a beautiful memorial was erected to 
Eugene Field in Lincoln Park, Chicago. A fund 
for $10,000 had been raised for this purpose by the 


Poet Whom Children Love 133 


children of the city, with the assistance of the Lin¬ 
coln Park Commissioners and the B. F. Ferguson 
Monument Fund. The sculptor, Edward McCar- 
ten, was told by the commissioners to put some of 
Mr. Field’s poems into granite. This was not an 
easy task because there was a great deal of material 
to choose from, and because, also, drums and ging¬ 
ham dogs and calico cats and things like that did 
not seem like just the sort of thing to put in a 
great memorial. 

At last he selected the Rock-a-by Lady from 
Hush-a-by Street as just exactly the right thing. 
He represented her with wings, in the form of a 
fairy, and not an angel, as some people imagine her 
to be. She is leaning over two sleeping children 
and dropping poppies from her hands. On the base 
of the monument are engraved the first four lines 
of the Dutch Lullaby, Wynken, Blynken and Nod: 

“ Wynken, Blynken and Nod one night 
Sailed off in a wooden shoe — 

Sailed on a river of crystal light, 

Into a sea of dew.” 

On the other side are the opening lines of the 
Sugar Plum Tree: 

“ Have you ever heard of the Sugar-Plum tree? 
} Tis a marvel of great renown! 

It blooms on the shore of the Lollipop sea 
In the garden of Shut Bye Town.” 


134 Eugene Field 

The two grandchildren of Eugene Field saw the 
beautiful monument unveiled. Only think how 
proud they must have been to know that so 
many other children had so honoured their dear 
grandfather! 

Eugene Field has written so many lovely poems 
for children that it is hard to say what ones we 
really like best. One of the greatest favourites is 
Little Boy Blue, which has been set to music. In 
1917, the original manuscript of this poem was sold 
at auction at an Allied Bazaar in Chicago, for the 
benefit of Europe’s war sufferers, and brought 
twenty-four hundred dollars. You remember the 
first words of Little Boy Blue, don’t you? 

" The little toy dog is covered with dust, 

But sturdy and staunch he stands; 

And the little toy soldier is red with rust , 

And his musket moulds in his hands " 

But whatever else you forget, please don’t forget 
that dear Rock-a-by Lady from Hush-arby Street 
who “ comes stealing; comes creepingbecause it 
is really such a very lovely poem and because the 
Rock-a-by Lady was chosen for the beautiful 
^monument to the memory of Eugene Field, who 
; took so much pleasure in writing those verses for 
children. A well-known writer named Kenneth! 
Grahame, called Mr. Field “ an American of 
Americans.” 


XVIII 

Mary Lyon 

Founder of Mount Holyoke College 


M ARY MASON LYON was bom near 
Buckland, Massachusetts, in 1798. Her 
father died when she was seven years old 
and Mary was obliged to do her part to help with 
the family expenses. She was an earnest and 
serious child, anxious to learn all she could about 
everything, and never wasting her time if she 
could help it. 

When Mary was thirteen her mother married 
again and took the younger children away to live 
in another state, leaving Mary to keep house for 
her brother. For this task the little girl received 
one dollar a week, which seemed like a large sum 
of money to her, and which helped to pay for a 
term at a nearby school. Before long she was able 
to be an assistant teacher herself and to earn 
seventy-five cents a week and her board, in return 
for her services. 

Although Mary Lyon was teaching at seventeen, 
she returned to school again and became a student 
at Ashfield Academy. In those days girls did not 
135 


136 


Mary Lyon 

spend much time on their educations because people 
thought if they could read and write and do a 
simple sum that they knew quite enough. The rest 
of their education had to do with sewing, weaving 
and other useful occupations. When he was a boy, 
the great educator, Horace Mann, met a woman 
who had studied Latin, who was such an unusual 
object that he regarded her as very like a goddess. 
Boys went to school for a longer period because 
they were supposed to need more education than 
their sisters. 

When Mary Lyon was a little girl she made up 
her mind that she would have the best education 
possible, and she worked hard to obtain it. At 
Ashfield Academy, she helped to pay her board by 
doing small things about the school. She did so 
well at her lessons that the teachers and scholars 
were amazed. There is a story that when the 
teacher asked Mary to learn the first chapter of the 
Latin grammar, she astonished everyone by recit¬ 
ing the whole book, which she had memorised in a 
single day. 

All this knowledge did not make Mary Lyon the 
least bit vain or conceited, I am glad to say. She 
was extremely popular with her classmates, and 
when she feared she could not afford to finish the 
year at Ashfield, the trustees themselves agreed to 
allow her free tuition for the rest of the term. 

Mary had a great friend at Ashfield, by the name 
of Amanda White, the daughter of Squire White, 


Founder of Mount Holyoke College 137 

of a nearby town. Amanda and Mary were very 
fond of each other, and the Squire was so pleased 
with the ambition and earnestness of his daughter’s 
friend that he helped her to go to By field Academy 
with Amanda, the following year. Byfield is a 
town not more than an hour’s train ride from 
Boston, but in the early nineteenth century the 
thirty-mile trip was made entirely by stage-coach, 
and took nearly three days. 

Mary Lyon’s sister was already teaching school, 
and this made her most anxious to fit herself for 
the same profession. Byfield Academy was run by 
a Mr. Emerson, a remarkable man, of whom Miss 
Lyon spoke in the highest possible terms. He was 
a Harvard graduate and one of the first men to 
believe in the higher education of women. He 
wanted to train them to become competent teachers, 
and he did all he could to help them. 

When Mary Lyon left Byfield she began her 
work of teaching. At first she was not very suc¬ 
cessful, but her great desire to become a good 
teacher and her unfailing patience and continued 
hard work finally brought their reward, for she 
became one of the best teachers in the country. 
For a time she taught at Ipswich Academy, and 
after that at Ashfield in the winter and at Derry, 
New Hampshire, in the summer. Her salary 
amounted to five or six dollars a week a large part 
of this time. 

As Miss Lyon gained experience in teaching, she 


138 


Mary Lyon 

became more and more disturbed about the poor 
equipment and the lack of proper attention given 
to the education of girls in the schools. She be¬ 
lieved so strongly in the need of better education 
for women that she made up her mind to devote 
her own life to awakening other people to this 
great necessity. 

When Mary Lyon told people of her idea of 
founding a college for women they were greatly 
amazed, and most of them thought that such a 
thing was utterly preposterous. The only college 
that was open to women at that time was the Ober- 
lin Collegiate Institute in Ohio, which was founded 
in 1833. Miss Lyon wished to build something 
that would be more accessible for girls from New 
England. At that time the only way a girl could 
continue her studies after finishing school, was to 
study with a private teacher—if she could find one, 
and if she could afford such a luxury. 

All the protests in the world failed to discourage 
Miss Lyon. She believed that women had the same 
right to an education as men had, and she deter¬ 
mined to do her best to obtain it for them. So she 
started her big campaign for the first college for 
women in America, Mount Holyoke Seminary, at 
South Hadley, Massachusetts. From one town to 
another she travelled, telling her story from house 
to house, and urging people to give something, no 
matter how small, to the great enterprise. Often 
she went to bed sadly discouraged, but the next 


Founder of Mount Holyoke College 139 

morning she would always rise with fresh hope 
and determination to carry her on to success. 

There was only one railroad in New England in 
1835, and Miss Lyon was forced to travel every¬ 
where by stage and on foot. Sometimes when she 
reached her destination she was too tired for words 
and only the unselfishness of her purpose kept her 
going on and on. She knew what the accomplish¬ 
ment of her great desire would mean to thousands 
of other women, so she went bravely along, climb¬ 
ing step by step up the steep road before her. And 
little by little, with a few cents here and a few 
dollars there, the money was gradually raised. The 
first thousand dollars came from women alone, 
and was collected in the first two months of her 
campaign. 

After many difficulties, the cornerstone was laid 
in the year 1836. When the building was well 
under way there was another campaign to raise 
money for the furnishings, simple though they 
were. In spite of all these obstacles, in the fall of 
1837 Mount Holyoke Seminary opened its doors 
to more than eighty girls. At the beginning of the 
second year four hundred were refused because 
there was no room for them. 

Miss Lyon told the girls that they must always 
remember that they were being trained for service, 
and that one of the greatest things in life was to be 
able to give service of some kind. She insisted that 
they dress simply and do what was expected of 


140 


Mary Lyon 

them, without having any hard and fast rules. 
They did most of the housework themselves, and 
the tuition and board for the entire year was only 
sixty dollars. Miss Lyon herself received just two 
hundred dollars a year, and in the twelve years that 
she remained at the head of the college, she would 
never take any more for her services. Her entire 
life was devoted to the founding and building up of 
this splendid institution and her own savings and 
| all her time and energy were given to it. 

Mary Lyon chose as her assistant Miss Eunice 
Caldwell, who afterwards became Mrs. J. P. 
Cowles, of Ipswich Academy. All of the women 
who helped in her work were of the same fine 
type as the founder herself, and were admired and 
respected by everyone. 

Although Mount Holyoke had really been a col¬ 
lege before, it was not made so in name until 1893. 
In recent years there have been many changes and 
improvements, and there are now many more build¬ 
ings and many more pupils at Mary Lyon’s College. 
In the first eighty-five years of its history, Mount 
Holyoke enrolled over eleven thousand students and 
graduated more than five thousand, many of whom 
became teachers and founders of schools and col¬ 
leges, missionaries and leaders in important social 
and religious movements. 

Although many changes have been made and 
many years have passed since the day when the 
founder first opened the doors to those eighty girls. 


Founder of Mount Holyoke College 141 

there are some things at the college at South Hadley 
that are still the same. It is run very much in the 
way that Miss Lyon started it, with the same high 
ideals and standards, and the girls still feel there 
what has become known as the “ Mary Lyon 
spirit.” 

Just before her death, Mary Lyon spoke to the 
girls about the loss of one of her students. In 
closing, she added these beautiful words, which 
have since been carved on her own monument in 
the graveyard near the college: “ There is nothing 
in the universe that I am afraid of, but that I shall 
not know all my duty.” These words express the 
noble purpose and character of a fine woman. 
Although Miss Lyon was only fifty-two when she 
died, her short life has left a deep mark on the 
history of education in this country, and on the 
lives of thousands of girls who have felt her in¬ 
fluence. In recognition of what she accomplished, 
she was elected to the Hall of Fame in 1905. 

There have been several biographies and many 
articles written about the life and work of Mary 
Lyon. Most of these can be found in the public 
libraries, and will give you a larger and more elabo¬ 
rate account of her noble character and the unselfish 
purpose of her life. 


XIX 

Cecil John Rhodes 

A Man Who Did Much for Education 

H AVE you ever heard some one speak of a 
man as a “ Rhodes ” scholar ? What he 
meant was that the man had won one of 
the scholarships left to Oxford University by the 
Englishman, Cecil John Rhodes. Through his 
generosity, graduates of other colleges who win 
enough distinction are able to continue their studies 
at Oxford without charge. 

Cecil Rhodes was bom in Hertfordshire, En¬ 
gland, in 1853, and was the fifth son of a clergy¬ 
man, who was famous for his short and beautiful 
sermons. He was educated at the grammar school 
at Bishop Stortford, the little town where he was 
born. His family wished very much to have him 
follow in his father’s footsteps and study for the 
ministry, and believed he was well suited to the 
Church, but at sixteen his health gave out and he 
was forced to leave England and go to a different 
climate, so they were obliged to abandon the idea. 
Rhodes went to join his brother, who was farming 
at Natal, in South Africa. 


142 


Who Did Much for Education 143 

The year 1870, in which Cecil Rhodes left En¬ 
gland, was an eventful one. It marked the begin¬ 
ning of the Franco-Prussian War and the flight of 
the Empress Eugenie from France to England. 
It was particularly important for the Rhodes 
brothers, because diamonds were discovered in 
the Kimberley fields in South Africa, and they 
were among the successful diggers. Cecil Rhodes 
not only became well and strong again; he became 
rich as well. And at that time he was not yet 
twenty years old. 

Soon after his adventure with the diamond mines 
the young Englishman set out to explore the part 
of Africa north of the Orange and Vaal rivers. He 
stayed there four years, and he wished very much 
that the British race could have control over this 
portion of South Africa. Then he returned to 
England and began his long-deferred career at Oriel 
College, Oxford. It was a cruel disappointment to 
him when his health again failed and he was forced 
to hurry back to South Africa. The doctors 
warned him that he had only a short time to live, 
but Rhodes was far stronger than they believed him 
to be and he soon regained his health and former: 
strength in the warmer climate. 

Cecil Rhodes had one fixed idea in his head—to 
finish his career at Oxford. He remained in South 
Africa for three years, and then returned again to 
his native land, determined to succeed this time if 
it was in his power to do so. He was many years 


144 


Cecil John Rhodes 

older than the other men in his classes, but this did 
not worry him. He was there to acquire his cov¬ 
eted college diploma, and although he did not study 
very hard he managed to pass all his examinations 
satisfactorily. He particularly liked the works of 
Aristotle and Marcus Aurelius. He greatly amused 
his classmates and disturbed his professors by 
bringing handfuls of uncut diamonds to lectures 
and passing them about among his fellow students. 
To keep himself feeling fit he rowed a little and 
returned to South Africa for the long vacation 
every summer. In this way he was finally gradu¬ 
ated from Oxford. 

When Cecil Rhodes finished his college course he 
returned to South Africa, where he became a more 
and more important person in the affairs of that 
country. His tastes were simple and he did not 
require a great deal of money to enable him to live 
in the way he liked. Much of his money was used 
for public benefit and not for personal pleasure. 
In 1881 he became a member of the Cape Assembly. 

The life of Rhodes in his adopted country was 
not without difficulties, and a great deal of his time 
was spent in controversy with President Kruger, 
the head of the Dutch militant party. President 
Kruger represented the Dutch, and Cecil Rhodes, 
the British interests in South Africa. The great 
discovery of the diamond mines in this part of the 
country had made many other nations interested in 
it and Rhodes feared that before long they would 


Who Did Much for Education 145 

all try to get control of it on this account. His 
great ambition was to have Africa, British, “ from 
the Cape to Cairo.” This was impossible, because 
too much territory was already owned by the Ger¬ 
mans. But at least part df his dream came true, 
for in a war in 1893, some 450,000 square miles of 
territory were added to the British Empire. 

In 1890, Rhodes became Prime Minister of the 
Cape. He was kept in power largely by the Dutch 
vote and he was very anxious to unite the British 
and Dutch interests in this part of the country. 
With the natives he was very popular and man¬ 
aged them with great cleverness. He was an abso¬ 
lute ruler, however, and his word was always law. 
He did not ask for or desire any sort of interfer¬ 
ence with his management of the country. 

In 1896 an affair known as the Jameson Raid 
occurred. Rhodes was not really responsible for 
this disturbance, but he was connected with it, and 
resigned his position as premier and took full 
blame for his part in it. Afterwards, in order to 
make his peace with the natives and to re-establish 
their confidence in him, he lived alone and unpro¬ 
tected in a hut in the woods for several weeks. He 
was then invited to attend their council and he re¬ 
turned to their camp with their messenger abso¬ 
lutely unarmed. When the discussion was held 
they decided to be at peace with him. 

Rhodesia in South Africa was named after Cecil 
Rhodes. Today, it is a territory of 440,000 square 


146 


Cecil John Rhodes 


miles and has 1,728,000 population. It is a pro¬ 
gressive place where the women vote, the land is 
well farmed, and gold and silver are mined. It is 
under the administration of the British South 
Africa Company. 

In 1899 the Boer War broke out. In this war 
England and South Africa fought against each 
other. Cape Colony was first settled by the Dutch 
and the people who lived there were called Boers, 
which is the Dutch word for farmers. This land 
finally fell into the hands of the English and the 
Boers did not like English rule and finally revolted 
and disagreed with their government. The result 
was the Boer War, and after three years of bitter 
struggle the Boers were obliged to surrender to the 
English, and the Orange Free State and the Trans¬ 
vaal came under English rule. Rhodes was in 
Kimberley during the time it was beseiged. He 
died March 26, 1902, and was buried, according to 
his instructions, in the Matoppo Hills. 

When Cecil Rhodes died he left his great fortune 
in scholarships to Oxford University, amounting 
to three hundred pounds a year apiece. These 
scholarships were to be given to students from 
every important British colony and from every 
state and territory of the United States of America. 
They provided for one hundred and seventy-five 
students for a term of three years each, and they 
have given many men the opportunity of further 
study at one of the greatest universities in the 


Who Did Much for Education 147 

world. Cecil Rhodes understood the value of a 
good education himself, and he wanted to help 
others to acquire one. Perhaps if you do your very 
best at school some day you may win a Rhodes 
Scholarship yourself. 

In this way Rhodes has erected a monument to 
his own memory that is ever before us and which 
has endeared him to thousands of people all over 
the world. 


XX 


Louis Pasteur 

A Great Life-Saver 

T HE name of Louis Pasteur is one of the 
greatest in the whole history of science. 
His discoveries in the field of medical re¬ 
search have saved thousands and thousands of lives 
and have helped to lengthen those of many more. 
He fought for human life just as any soldier fights 
for his country. For his remarkable services to 
his country and to mankind in general he was 
once voted by the people of France, “ the greatest 
Frenchman of all time.” 

Pasteur was born at Dole in the Jura mountains, 
in the extreme eastern portion of France, not far 
from Switzerland. There is an inscription over the 
doorway of the little house today so that strangers 
will not fail to see it. In 1822, the same year that 
Louis Pasteur was bom in France, General Grant 
was born in America; and, strange to say, they 
were both sons of a tanner. 

The Pasteur family can be traced back a good 
many generations. The great-great-grandparents 
of the great scientist were in humble circumstances 


148 


149 


Great Life Saver 

and were unable to write their own names. His 
great-grandfather was born a serf, but finally pur¬ 
chased his freedom and tried to educate himself. 
Besides being a very good tanner, Louis’s father 
served in the Napoleonic wars as a sergeant-major 
in the famous Third Regiment, renowned for its 
bravery. He was a fine soldier and received the 
cross of the Legion of Honour for his service to 
France. 

The home life of the Pasteur family was a very 
happy one. Louis never forgot the wise and good 
teachings of his kind father and the two remained 
close friends all their lives. More than everything 
else he longed to be an artist, and spent most of his 
time drawing and painting. He received a good 
education and at sixteen was sent to Paris in order 
to better prepare himself for the Lcole Normale. 
This was his first absence from home, and he soon 
became so homesick that he decided he would rather 
go to a school in the provinces where he would not 
be so far away from his dear family. 

In spite of the fact that he later became famous 
for his work in this subject, Pasteur was never very 
good in chemistry at school. In fact he was even 
marked “mediocre” in this particular branch of 
study, when he received his diploma. But he com¬ 
pleted his course at the Lcole Normale, and soon 
afterwards began to teach. He held several im¬ 
portant positions and, while at Strasburg Univer¬ 
sity, he married Marie Laurent, daughter of the 


150 


Louis Pasteur 


rector of the university, with whom he lived hap¬ 
pily for forty-seven years. 

One day, when Pasteur was a young man about 
twenty-five years old, he heard a lecture at the Sor- 
bonne, given by a chemist named Jean Baptiste 
Andre Dumas, who was a keen advocate of ex¬ 
perimental research. He became so interested in 
the subject that he began to spend more and more 
time in research work and, before long, he obtained 
gratifying results from his labours. The pasteur¬ 
isation of milk is the result of one of the French 
scientist’s discoveries and the word is made from 
his name. 

In 1865 a disease broke out among the silk 
worms that threatened to damage the whole silk 
worm industry if the cause were not soon discov¬ 
ered. Pasteur was asked by the Minister of Agri¬ 
culture to investigate the epidemic and, with his| 
usual thoroughness, he studied the trouble. He 
visited Austria and Italy, as well as sections of his' 
own country, and eventually discovered the cause 
and the prevention of the silk worm disease. 
Further discoveries of his saved the world’s wine 
industry and made a great deal of money for 
France and other countries. 

Another disease called anthrax attacked the cattle 
of France, and enormous loss of life was caused 
among them. Pasteur was again consulted, and he 
immediately set to work to see what could be done 
about it. He experimented and experimented, and 


151 


Great Life Saver 

finally successfully vaccinated the animals to pre¬ 
vent their getting the disease. He saved thousands 
of chickens from dying of chicken cholera in the 
same way. By his methods of treating wounds he 
made a great advance in surgery and decreased the 
number of deaths from gangrene. 

The greatest of all Pasteur’s discoveries was the 
method of preventing rabies or hydrophobia, a dis¬ 
ease caused by the bite of a mad dog, which up to 
that time had been fatal. The first test was made 
on Joseph Meister, a boy from Alsace, who had 
been badly bitten by a mad dog. Imagine how 
anxiously everyone must have been waiting to hear 
how the experiment had turned out. It was suc¬ 
cessful, for Joseph’s life was saved, and many 
other patients were given the treatment and en¬ 
tirely cured. In the first four months after the 
treatment was begun, three hundred and fifty per¬ 
sons were inoculated and only one case was lost. 
[The death rate of cases of hydrophobia treated by 
J Pasteur’s methods has been reduced to one in a 
hundred. Is it any wonder that one writer calls 
him “ The most perfect man who has ever entered 
the kingdom of science ” ? 

It is pleasant to think that Louis Pasteur lived 
long enough to see something of the benefit of his 
great discoveries to the world and to receive many 
honours for his service to mankind. The home 
government awarded him and his family a gener¬ 
ous pension and France made him chevalier of the 


152 


Louis Pasteur 


Legion of Honour and later officier and gave him 
the Grand Croix. He was elected to the French 
Academy and to the American National Association 
of Sciences. Medals and prizes and degrees were 
lavished upon him from all corners of the globe. 

The Pasteur Institute for anti-rabies inoculation 
was opened in 1888, and was made possible by 
world-wide contributions from rich and poor alike, 
totaling more than two-and-a-half million francs. 
It has been called the “ world’s greatest life-saving 
institute.” The Rockefeller Institute for Medical 
Research, in New York City, is a similar institu¬ 
tion and now renders the same great service to 
the world. 

In the last years of Pasteur’s life he was seri¬ 
ously afflicted with paralytic strokes, but he con¬ 
tinued his work almost to the end. His last words 
expressed the whole purpose of his unselfish and 
noble life: 11 faut travailler —“ One must work.” 
That was the great force of his whole life—work. 
And it was always work to help other people. 
Pasteur died in 1895 and was buried in state at 
Notre Dame. His body now rests in a beautiful 
mausoleum in the Pasteur Institute, and his own 
words are inscribed near his tomb: “ Happy is he 
who has a Deity within him , an ideal of beauty 
which he obeys, an ideal of art, an ideal of country, 
an ideal of the virtues of the New Testament ” 

Louis Pasteur believed in building up rather than 
destroying and for this reason he hated the idea of 


Great Life Saver 


153 


war. He said: “ Science and peace shall triumph 
over ignorance and war. The people shall agree 
not to destroy, but to build up.” After the Franco- 
Prussian War he refused to accept a degree from 
any German university. 

In 1922—one hundred years after the birth of 
Pasteur—there was a worldwide celebration in his 
honour. 


XXI 

Walter Reed 

The Man Who Killed Yellow Fever 

T HERE was once a man who said: “ One 
thing I will not permit to forsake me, and 
that is my courage.” That was Major 
Walter Reed, whose brave life and early death were 
a shining example of the truth of his own words. 

Walter Reed was born in Virginia in 1851. His 
mother and father were from North Carolina, but 
had spent most of their lives in the state where 
Walter was born. They had four sons and one 
daughter, and the children were educated at pri¬ 
vate schools in Farmville and Charlottesville, Vir¬ 
ginia. Walter was about ten years old when the 
Civil War broke out, and he saw a good many ex¬ 
citing things at that time. One day when the boys 
were sent to hide their horses from the raiders, it 
was such a hot day that they forgot all about what 
they had set out to do, and went swimming. Then 
the raiders came along and seized both horses and 
boys, but fortunately for them, they finally released 
the boys. I don’t believe they ever forgot anything 
like that again. 


154 


Who Killed Yellow Fever 155 

Walter learned with such remarkable rapidity 
that he was able to enter the University of Vir¬ 
ginia at sixteen. He would probably have com¬ 
pleted his college course with great distinction had 
not the limited finances of his family made it neces¬ 
sary for him to leave before the end of it. To the 
surprise of his instructors he worked so hard that 
he was able to take his degree and to be graduated 
the third highest man in his class, as well as the 
youngest medical student ever graduated from the 
Medical School at Charlottesville. 

From Charlottesville young Reed went directly 
to New York to study and later to practice medi¬ 
cine. His brother, Christopher, was a lawyer in 
that city when Walter began his work there. Dr. 
Reed’s patients were all in the very dirtiest and 
poorest district, and he found his task far from 
easy. But he worked with a will and soon gained 
a splendid reputation as a physician and surgeon. 
He was deeply interested in his work and was never 
too busy or too tired to nelp anyone if he could 
possibly do so. 

When Walter Reed was twenty-three he made up 
his mind to go into the Army as a surgeon. A year 
later he became a first lieutenant in the regular 
Army and was sent to Willett’s Point, New York. 
He was no sooner settled there than he was ordered 
to Arizona, which is usually the way with army 
officers. Before leaving, he married Miss Emilie 
Lawrence, who later followed him to Fort Lowell. 


156 


Walter Reed 

On the way out west young Mrs. Reed had a most 
eventful and trying journey, being caught in a 
heavy blizzard and afterwards in a railroad acci¬ 
dent. She kept her courage, however, and at last 
reached Fort Lowell, to the great joy of her 
husband. 

The Reeds now began to lead the regular army 
life, traveling from one place to another, often 
with little notice beforehand, and frequently suffer¬ 
ing a good deal of discomfort. At Camp Apache, 
Walter Lawrence Reed was born. After four years 
in Arizona they were sent to Baltimore for a short 
time and, while there, Dr. Reed took advantage of 
the opportunity to do some studying and research 
work at Johns Hopkins University. He became an 
instructor at the Army Medical School, but another 
call to the far west shortened his period of teaching. 

This time the Reed family travelled all the way 
to Fort Omaha, Nebraska, where they remained 
for five years. They had had a generous share of 
life in the Far West and were more than ready 
when they were ordered to the Mount Vernon Bar¬ 
racks, way down in Alabama. Dr. Reed loved the 
beautiful flowers and the trees and the sunshine 
and all the other things that the warm climate of 
the South offered them. 

At last his travels brought him back to Washing¬ 
ton, where he received the rank of major and was 
ordered to the office of the Surgeon-General. Soon 
after his appointment, typhoid fever broke out in a 


Who Killed Yellow Fever 157' 

most alarming way among the troops during the 
Spanish-American War. On account of his ability 
and knowledge, Major Reed was appointed chair¬ 
man of a committee to investigate the cause and 
extent of this terrible disease, which he found was 
largely caused by flies. Through the work of this 
commission discoveries of great benefit to the world 
were made in regard to typhoid fever. 

In the eighteenth century there were thirty-five 
epidemics of yellow fever in the United States. 
From 1800 to 1879 there was yellow fever some¬ 
where in this country, every single year but two. 
There were thousands of deaths in New Orleans 
alone: 10% of the population of Philadelphia was 
wiped out by it and many other large cities suffered 
frightfully from this dreadful scourge. Major 
Reed had been in Washington a year when the 
news came that yellow fever had again broken out, 
this time among the American troops who were 
stationed at Havana. Four prominent doctors were 
sent to investigate this new trouble, and among 
them was Walter Reed. 

After much study and work Dr. Reed demon¬ 
strated that yellow fever was transmitted only by 
the bite of a certain type of mosquito, and that the 
mosquito must have become infected by previously 
biting someone already suffering with the fever. 
As a result of this great discovery, yellow fever 
has been practically eliminated and the construction 
of the Panama Canal was made possible, without 


158 


Walter Reed 

the loss of thousands of lives. In a previous at¬ 
tempt to build the,Canal many people had died of 
yellow fever. 

In order to prove that the mosquito carried the 
germ, many lives had to be sacrificed. Two young 
privates in the army heroically offered themselves 
for experimental purposes, and when they did this 
Major Reed touched his cap and said to them: 
“ Gentlemen, I salute you. In my opinion this ex¬ 
hibition of moral courage has never been surpassed 
in the annals of the Army of the United States.” 

Major-General Leonard Wood, Military Gov¬ 
ernor of Cuba, greatly helped Walter Reed in his 
work. The General said of him: “ I know of no 
man who has done so much for humanity as Major 
Reed. His discovery results in the saving of more 
lives annually than were lost in the Cuban war and 
saves the commercial interests of the world a 
greater financial loss in each year than the cost of 
the entire Cuban war.” 

Walter Reed’s great service to humanity was cut 
short by his early death at the age of fifty-one. 
He died of peritonitis and was survived by his wife 
and two children. His son became an officer of 
high rank in the United States Army and his 
daughter married an army officer. Their father 
was buried in Arlington Cemetery, Washington. 
The inscription on the monument was chosen by 
the United States Army surgeons, and reads: 
“He gave to man control over that dreadful 


Who Killed Yellow Fever 159 

scourge, yellow fever.” These words were taken 
from an address by Dr. Eliot, of Harvard Uni¬ 
versity, when he awarded an honourary degree to 
Walter Reed. 

The Walter Reed General Hospital was erected 
in 1909, in memory of Major Reed, and was built 
on the site of a skirmish in the Civil War, known 
as the Battle of Fort Stevens. This was a particu¬ 
larly interesting event because it was at this time 
that President Lincoln narrowly escaped being shot, 
while watching the engagement. A Confederate 
sharpshooter cleverly hidden in a tree near one of 
the entrances to what are now the hospital grounds, 
only just missed killing him. 

The great service that Walter Reed performed 
for humanity places him in a line with the greatest 
scientists of the world. He was honest, straight¬ 
forward, and direct in character, and was respected 
and admired by all who knew him. He was always 
ready and willing to give a helping hand to anyone 
he could. Many a poor man beside whose bedside 
he watched far into the night remembered him 
with affection. After his discovery of the cause 
of yellow fever he wrote to his wife: “ The prayer 
that has been mine for twenty years, that I might 
be permitted in some way or at some time to do 
something to alleviate human suffering has been 
granted! ” 

Dr. Howard Kelly, of Johns Hopkins Hospital, 
Baltimore, said of him: “The greatest lesson of 


160 


Walter Reed 

Dr. Reed’s life is that the secret of happiness and 
usefulness lies rather in giving what we can to life, 
than in getting what we can from it.” Most of us 
are far more concerned with what we are going to 
get than with what we are going to give, and we 
seldom stop to think about it. Dr. Reed’s example 
is such a beautiful one that we must all feel better 
for trying to follow it by being helpful and useful 
whenever we can. 
























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